St. Patrick's Day - Part One

As anticipated, St. Patrick's day was a long, drawn-out affair.  Not in a bad way, of course.  I was up bright and early doing my prep-work.  This was the making and tasting, and tasting, and tasting of my world famous Green Death Margaritas.

Busy Hands Are The Devil's Workshop


It was a tough job, but someone had to do it.  And the results were most gratifying.

A Freezer Full Of Happiness


Shortly after completing my Margarita mixing the decorating committee, that would be Marcie, showed up.

Green Is So In This Year, Dahling


The Mysterious Chinese Woman was here to lend a helping hand, and that was a good thing.  All my tasting had caught up with me so I assumed a supervisory role.

A Little Higher, Please


We decorated the sliding glass doors with hopes that it would keep the pigeons from flying into them.  It seemed to work, for the pigeons, at least.

Dumber Than Your Average Pigeon


There is no occassion for which Marcie is not prepared, and St. Patrick's Day is no exception.

All Of The Trimmings


And What would St. Patrick's day be without at least one drinking game?

But Does It Have To Be A Jig?


The Mysterious Chinese Woman was discussing her many birthdays (that is many each year).  I certainly don't mean to imply that she, well, you know.  Anyway, she was discussing them with our friends Valerie and Dave, and she mentioned that a traditional birthday dish is a poached chicken with both the head and feet still attached.  They thought she should celebrate one more birthday while they were here so the bought her the requisite chicken.

And An Irish One At That


Dave left a few days ago to head to,  of all places, Alaska.  He had to put on a trade show or something.  Not too surprisingly Valerie decided to stay in sunny Puerto Vallarta and attend the St. Patrick's Day festivities.

A Wise Valerie


Soon my friends Sandy and Rico showed up.  They are from Minnesota, from whence I originated.  In the past they have spent a week here in my place but this year they are down for two weeks and got their own digs.

Sandy


Rico


They were followed by the always fashionable Marge.

Blouse Must Match The Drink


And Marge's husband, the orifice challenged Wayne.

An Opening Is An Opening


Wayne is an architect but I have the vague feeling a house designed by him might be a bit, shall we say, challenging?  The kitchen stove would probably be in the bathroom.

Close on the heels of Wayne and Marge were Allison and Steve.

And Now The Party Can Begin


Sharon and Paul were next to arrive.  They were a bit late because Sharon said that Paul's grooming was taking longer than usual.

The Well-Groomed Paul, Not A Single Visible Nose Hair


And The Always Well-Groomed Sharon


That is Bill, Marcie's husband, just behind Sharon.  He is pouting because he doesn't like anything Green so he wasn't drinking the Margarita's.

And last, but not least, Jim and Carol arrived.  Marcie had been waiting to pounce on Jim's head because  she had saved a special tattoo for him.

First, A Little Prep-Work


Now, This Won't Hurt A Bit


And Let Us Not Forget Carol


Steve also had a nice palette for Marcie's artwork.

Big Foreheads Are In This Year


And, of course, the inevitable rivalry.

Mine Is Bigger Than Yours


The Margaritas were going down just fine, but they only do so much damage.  What you really need are Jello shots.

Okay, Plenty For Everyone, Even The Kids


And the Jello shots went down pretty good as well.

Does This Look Dignified?


Who Cares?


And there wasn't any canned fruit or tiny marsh-mellows in the Jello shots either.  After a few of them, though, you did need to hold each other up.

Ooh, How Many Did You Have?


Bar Man Provides Sturdy Support


After drinking almost all of the Margaritas and downing all of the Jello shots it was time for most of us to head to stage two.  Marge and Wayne had to depart, though.  Marge was flying back to Chicago for a few days to see her granddaughter in a school play.  She said she had the lead in Fiddler In The Roof.  Nobody will ever replace Zero Mostel in my opinion.  Wayne was staying here in Puerto Vallarta, but he had to go to the airport with Marge.

Anyway, our next stage was Murphy's Irish Pub where we continued our festivities.

Murphy's Irish Pub On The Malecon


Needless to say there will be more to post about that part of the day, but it will have to wait until tomorrow.  I think I found two friends in the fridge who need my attention.

Make New Friends But Drink The Old


And that, as they say, is all for now.