Dinner on Patrick's Day

I had a wonderful evening and a delicious dinner last night.  We ate at a big long table set up outside and later moved over to the fire pit where the burning logs felt so good.  Of course it's usually constant laughs when I'm with this group.

I managed to get some pictures of the kids and me, but the adults were too spread out to try to get them into a picture.  Of course, you can't get 5 kids to look at a camera at the same time, but we tried.

Here I am with Joe's girls:

And here are the kids at the table:

You almost definitely need to click for an enlarged photo - it seems the old blogger loaded the photos differently, and now they seem to be much smaller.  Maybe it's just me.

We had corned beef, cabbage and potatos and it was a really tasty meal.  Makes me want to go out and buy the ingredients and fix some for myself, but I know I'd be eating it for a long time.  Just maybe ....

I guess I've been away from Ireland for a long time and have forgotten the taste of Guinness.  I had two bottles of it last night and it was delicious!  Normally I just drink it while in Ireland - it tastes much different and better there, no doubt because they don't have to pasteurize all the goodness out of it.  But the two bottles tasted pretty good, at that.  In the earlier part of the evening I had two Guinness and one Miller High Life, plus a drop or two of the best whiskey I've ever tasted in my life, and I'm not normally a bourbon drinker.  It took my breath away it was so good.  

Steve found it and became interested because the name of it is the same as my mother's maiden name - Willett.  The distillery is in Bardstown, KY, so he asked me if there was any relation with our Willetts in southwestern KY.  I contacted my brother who has worked geneaology with me over the years and he sent me what he had on this family.  I can't remember for sure but think I'm the 2nd cousin 4X removed from the original distiller.  (You would have to either be a genealogist or come from a small town in a rural area where it's good to know exact relationships for this to mean much to you.) 

Today has been lazy for me, more so than most of them.  I should get back to pulling weeds before the rains start up this coming week.  I lean over while pulling them, because it is so hard to get back up if I get down on my knees.  There just ain't no easy way!