A Week of Non-Holidays in March

Last week had a lot of days that we born great, achieved greatness, or had greatness thrust upon them. None of them are federally-recognized holidays. Even so, we did plenty of celebrating on the side.

Monday was March 14, recently given the moniker "Pi(e) Day" since the date is abbreviated (in the American style) 3/14, like the number Pi that starts with 3.14. I was reminded of the fact when I went to the grocery store and saw tables of pies on sale as if I was in a Hallmark store with another of their brand-new holidays. Since we already had all the ingredients (including a frozen pie crust!), I made pecan pie at home to celebrate.

Pie are round!

Tuesday was March 15, known in the old Roman calendar as the Ides of March. It's famous as the day when Julius Caesar was stabbed to death at a meeting of the Roman Senate in 44 BC. I meant to grill out that day but things didn't come together till the next day. I grilled my typical plate of meat. Really, grilling has nothing to do with the Ides of March, it was just an excuse. Since I use a charcoal grill, I usually put an extra round of boneless chicken breasts on to cook while we eat. We also roasted marshmallows and had s'mores for dessert (the pecan pie didn't last more than two days in our six-person household).

Steaks and burgers and sausages and chicken!

Thursday was March 17, Saint Patrick's Day. In celebration, I cooked something fun and delicious again. On the eve, I browned the beef and chopped the vegetables to put in the crock pot early Thursday morning. The ingredients simmered all day, resulting in a family favorite, Guinness Beef Stew. My daughter and I made Irish Soda Bread to go with it.

Browned beef

Frying onions is a popular smell in our house

Finished product

Irish Soda Bread

The week was capped off with Saturday, March 19, Saint Joseph's Day. Our dance studio was host for the Baltimore Dancesport Challenge. It was a full day of short dance performances by students from across the region. We had not signed up for any of the challenges, we were there just to cheer on our fellow dancers. The variety of skills, songs, and styles was amazing. Our package came with lunch and dinner. The dinner was steak and shrimp with cheesecake for dessert. Delicious, and no cooking on our part (also, no picture--sorry!). The evening ended with some professional dancers putting on a show. We had to get back to the kids at home so we missed that part. 

Us there

I hope we have just as good a week next year!

Saint Patrick/Saint Joseph Days 2021

Our church encouraged people to make a Saint Joseph's Day altar. We started early and let Saint Patrick try out the "first draft" of the altar. After finishing decorating, I added one extra touch. Can you tell the difference between the two pictures below?

Initial altar

What's new?

We followed our usual tradition of making Guinness beef stew, which cooks in a crock pot all day long. It came out beautifully and I am looking forward to many yummy leftovers. 

Stewing the beef

Finished product

The altar was transformed on March 18 to a Saint Joseph Altar, with many of the typical trimmings. We added bread, cookies and fruit, along with a bowl of breadcrumbs to represent the sawdust. We didn't have any fava beans so we had to improvise.

Saint Joseph Altar

Another fun Saint Joseph tradition is to bake bread in the shape of carpenter's tools (since Joseph was a carpenter). We took a picture of the pre-baked dough in case the shapes got out of shape during baking.

The "A" is supposed to be a compass

Finished products

We went to Savage Mill for a post-Saint Patrick's Day demonstration of Irish Dancing by the Culkin School of Traditional Irish Dance. 

High-stepping fun

Whoops, this picture is pretty much the same as the first!

We had a fun pair of holy days in the middle of our Lenten observance.

St. Patrick's Day 2019

One of our favorite local spots, Historic Savage Mill, had a Saint Patrick's Day scavenger hunt in the mill. Being veterans of several other mill hunts, we wanted to try this one out. Also, for a five dollar donation we received a bingo sheet that let us get a free ice cream.

Our bingo sheet in progress

We went to several stores and had success almost everywhere. Some shamrocks were easier to spot than others!

In Aww Baby Organics

We discovered some other fun items like this "I love you more than bacon" sign. That's a pretty big statement in our family!

Aww, thanks son!

The line for free ice cream was long, so Mommy stood in line while we finished off two more stores. The wait was totally worth it because they have some yummy ice cream at Say Cheezz Grille.

Strawberry, Moose Tracks, and Mint Chocolate Chip (we paid for two)

On actual Saint Patrick's Day, my oldest had his Gifted and Talented Elementary Band concert. They had been practicing since just before Christmas, so it was the culmination of a lot of hard work. They played six pieces.

My son coming in

Playing his saxophone

Changing his music

The event was also the world premier of a new work of music, Tectonic Plates by Adrian Sims. Sims is a recent high school graduate (he's only 18 years old!) who has already written another work. They played it beautifully.



The evening was capped off with a Guinness at home for me, since I didn't feel like fighting the crowds at the local bars.

The good stuff

They've opened a Guinness brewery here in Maryland which we haven't visited yet. Now that the Saint Patrick's Day excitement has died down, maybe we will finally check it out!

Wizards vs. Pacers 2018

My son's school had tickets for the family night at the Washington Wizards basketball game on March 17, 2018. The Wizards were playing the Indiana Pacers, a close rival. It was an exciting game.

Like last year, we had the inexpensive, high up seats in the stadium. Unlike last year, no good samaritan gave us better tickets, so we staying in the nose-bleed seats.

View from our seats

My son chilling before the game

The stadium had the typical pre-game activity going on--players warming up and a little indoor blimp flying around.

Testing the camera's zoom feature

Blimp or car--you make the call!

One of the challenges with high up seats is deciding weather to watch the jumbotron or the actual action on the court. Before the game, they had one of many ceremonies honoring people at the game, including two children named honorary co-captains of the Wizards for the night.

Captains easier to see on the big screen than on the court

With preliminaries done, they were ready to start the game. That included introducing each of the starting players with their own bursts of flame!

Lights swirling around the stadium

These players are on fire!

The mascot was not introduced but he kept wandering in and out of our attention span. So did the cheerleaders.

Mascot cracking someone up

Actual view of the mascot from our seats--choose the jumbotron

Cheerleaders warming up the crowd

The game started with a slow build in the action. The teams were fairly even during the first half.

View is about the same on the jumbotron and in real life

During one of the commerical breaks, they presented a Dunkin' Donuts race on the jumbotron, which was the same race we had seen before at Camden Yards during a Baltimore Orioles game. Not very exciting.

Donut run without a delivery=no fun

Another commercial found the Wizards and Geico honoring a woman from Boys and Girls Club, which was nice.

Surrounded by mascots

Jumbotron view

They also played a game called Hot or Cold, where a lucky audience member would be blindfolded and the crowd had to guide her to the mascot at the center of the court. Well, they secretly replaced the mascot with the girl's uncle who just got back from deployment. It was a touching surprise.

Hot or Cold contest kickoff

Surprise!

During another commercial break, they had another challenge, this time for the players and in honor of Saint Patrick's Day. The jumbotron displayed an "Irish or Not?" slide and then showed the players trying to guess if certain items were Irish or not.

You ready for this?

Wrong guess, Kelly!

Tomas didn't even know who Ed Sheeran was (neither did I, so I don't blame him)

Bradley rightly identifies curling as not Irish

The Irish may not forgive him for this mistake

Something is out of sync here

During half time, we went in search of snacks. The pretzels weren't hot yet so we bought some chicken tenders and fries. Since the stadium is sponsored by Capital One, the concession stand gave us a ten percent discount on the food for using our Capital One credit card.

During the final half, the game became more exciting as the Wizards developed a slim lead. At another commercial break, they had the weirdest contest I ever saw--the human bobble head contest. Guys had pedometers strapped to their heads and they had to nod up and down as fast as they could for thirty seconds. Thirty seconds doesn't sound like a long time, but let me assure it was.

Advantage jumbotron

Later, some restaurant got in on the action. Chick-fil-A had parachuting snacks. Being in the nose-bleed seats, we looked down on the people getting the prizes.

Parachuting chickens!

Local bar and restaurant chain The Green Turtle had a shell game that one fan got to play. She won thanks to the crowd helping her out.

Shell game with virtual turtle shells!

Cheerleaders in their second half outfits

The Pacers had a bit of a comeback late in the game but then the Wizards opened up a wide lead, leaving them triumphant with a score of 109 to the Pacers' 102.

More game action

The big finale

We had a fun time and got new t-shirts. Unlike last year, I was smart enough not to ask what size they recommended. Last year they gave me a medium which was too small for me (though it was the tallest stack of t-shirts by far). I asked for a large and got one that I can wear without it being too tight.

T-shirt giveaway

We had a great time and will probably go back again next year.