Sunday I typed a post and set it to go at midnight Monday. In that post I promised to post photos from the St. Patrick’s Day Parade. Monday I got NO comments. Monday night I went to write the post with the photos and I couldn’t get into my blog. MAJOR error. Jester came to my rescue, but by then it was all kinds of late so whaaa-la, you are only getting my pictures now.
Good news is, Jester rocks! And because he fixed this place I can now show you photos from Saturday. Yaaaay, Jester! Thank you, thank you.
Every year Pittsburgh throws a St. Patrick’s Day celebration the Saturday before the High Holy Day itself. The parade lasts from 10 AM until 2 PM and is damn fun. This year cousin Twinkle Twat brought her son who is three years old. Aunt Tinkle Tom Tom Twat and I left our dogs at home even though it broke our heart, but there was drinking to do and we didn’t want to be responsible.
I had a bottle of Bailey’s in my purse, Aunt Tinkle had a travel mug of pure Jameson (The word whiskey is an Anglicisation of the ancient Gaelic term “uisce beatha” which translates as “water of life”), a flask of peppermint schnapps and a flask of peach schnapps.
We started towards the beginning of the parade route, but there were so many people that they were spilling into the street so we couldn’t really enjoy the parade. Easy solution? Become a part of the parade and walk further down the route until you find where you are comfy. ANYhow, here’s the pics!
Don’t know why, but I love wolfhounds. 
At one point I needed to run into the bagel place to buy a few green bagels and half cups of coffee (needed room for the Bailey’s) before heading down to where we would watch the bulk of the four hours worth of parade. On the way I ran into one of my favorite former coworkers. And his cheek full of chaw. (Blech!)
We got to the perfect spot, drank a bunch of booze and watched a bunch of parade…
How can folks be afraid of clowns? 
This dude was sooo happy.
Great Pyrenees dogs were adorable in green. 
Thankfully the llamas didn’t spit. 
Loved the Ren Fest folks.
10Q, 10Q, 10Q! 
Oh yes, Mr. McFeely from Mr. Rogers! 
Lawn Order cracked me up.
As did their Terrible Trailer. 
Roller Derby girls!
Steel City Fins 
Gotta love Phil.
Aack! Zombies! 
Howling at the fireboys in their trucks. hehe
Ok, enough of that. Here is my favorite photo from the parade…
Tomorrow I will share the after parade photos. Hope I didn’t scare you off with all of these. Wheeeeeeee!
Pittsburgh’s new Hofbräuhaus opens today. The original is in Munich and Pittsburgh’s is the latest in their desire to take over the states. I’ve heard of Newport, KY (Cincinnati area) and Las Vegas, NV being incredibly successful with their Hofbräuhaus franchises. Although Pittsburgh has several smaller breweries, I have a feeling I will be spending some time at our new huge restaurant / bar.
Friday a “friends and family” event was held in order to get the staff up to speed with how to handle a crowd. The facility itself holds 400 inside and 600 outside so they sure do have their work cut out for them, but I was very pleased with my experience. Unfortunately they didn’t have a huge crowd so I received a desperate phone call from my cousin who now works there. Didn’t take much convincing to get me to agree to do lunch at the free event.
Oh how glad I was that I went. The potato pancakes are reason in and of themselves for me to go back. My tilapia meal was delicious and arrived in a timely manner. Cinderella’s sandwich was as big as her head. The free pretzels with beer cheese would have been better with beer, but I had to go back to work.
So of course after work Cinderella and I went back. You all know I love me some free stuff, so I was all too happy to head back down to the Southside Works after I finished up at the office. Cinderella joined me because we simply had to have more of those potato pancakes. And we had to try the beer that was shipped over from Germany. (They will be brewing their own on site, but it wasn’t ready so they had to import some.)
Oh my fuck, is the dunkel tasty. LOVE! The dunkel is a dark lager which is 5.5% alcohol by volume. And yes, the mugs are as big as my head. I think I heard 34 ounces. Which is about three bottles of beer. Tasty, tasty beer. For less than eight bucks! At one point I think I hollered something like “OH MY FUCK, IS THIS BEER GOOD!” because everyone around me giggled and started talking to me about how I really feel.
I am planning on going back Friday night. Anyone in the Pittsburgh area who wants to come drink beer, you know where to find me!
(The photo at the top of the page has me drinking a Weizen, a wheat beer, at about 5.4% alcohol by volume. Also delicious, but I think I prefer Franziskaner if I am going for a wheat. Actually, they may be different varieties of wheat beer, but I don’t care enough to Google that shit. Point is, the dunkel was my favorite.)
So after Cinderella and I went for Beers As Big As Our Heads, we stopped at a street vendor to buy green gloves to wear to the St. Patrick’s Day parade. Except we also bought hats.
Stories and photos from Saturday’s drunken parade and aftermath will appear here tomorrow. I PROMISE.
Going to see my boyfriend Dwayne Johnson in Race to Witch Mountain, or whatever it is that the movie is called. All I care about is seeing him and trying not to slide out of my chair. Wouldn’t want to embarrass myself in front of my friends.
Bad, bad blogger Becky. I started this little slice of the Internet pie a year ago. OVER a year ago. Yep, I missed my blog’s birthday. Woops.
On March 9, 2008 I wrote my first big girl post here at the Cliff. It was an explanation of this site’s name and the post flew out from my fingers faster than any other post I have ever written. Most of you have read it, but if you haven’t, please do. Click HERE.
This place has grown to be so special for me. I am grateful for Jester who provides the hosting service and who did all of the design work (I gave him a few parameters and he went above and beyond my dreams for this place!). Years ago he was explaining what a blog is and why someone would want to have one, today I have met some of my favorite people through this place and theirs. He deserves all the credit for creating the blogging addicted monster that I have become. Thanks, Jester!
The best part about having the Cliff are the friends I have made. Not just in the computer friends, but friends. Some I was able to put skin on and others I haven’t, but there are some really fucking incredible and supportive people who wouldn’t be in my life if it weren’t for the Internet. I am grateful for them and can’t even imagine my life without them.
Love you guys. Happy belated my blog’s birthday.
A dear friend of mine, you have seen him in my comments as Donnie, is a good, hardworking man who is always in my corner with a supportive word. My life is better because he is in it. We met because our companies do business together and quickly became friends. He is a good dood.
Just so happens that Donnie was born on this day many moons ago. I racked my brain to think of a good gift for him and then it hit me…his birthday falls on a Thursday so gift him with my rack.
left
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Happy, happy birthday, Donnie Van Donnie. You are loved. And appreciated.
(For more HNT fun, head over to where it all started!)
Ξ March 10th, 2009 | → 12 Comments | ∇ me |
Today at work I got an email from and aunt who is 66 years old. I think I told a story involving her before (“we’re here, we’re queer, get used to it!“). Fun, intelligent, great sense of humor…terrific qualities in a person. So anyhow, her email announces a party coming up at the end of March. I love our family gatherings so I quickly reply, telling her how grateful I am that she is providing yet another opportunity for our large group to gather together.
She was still at her computer and shot me back an email asking me to a simple dinner at her house yesterday (Tuesday) because she knows I love chili. Oh. Hell. Yes. I am all about free, all about not cooking and all about hanging out with Auntie M. (Auntie M sounds so much better here than simply saying Aunt Marcia.)
I arrived around 7 PM, after spending some time at home with the boys, throwing a ball and just hanging out in the chilly sunshine. Small aside here…not only do my dogs keep the squirrels out of the yard, but birds are not even permitted to fly over the yard. Especially if the birds are crows. Both of my boys loose their shit when birds fly over.
Back to the point I was trying to make. I didn’t get home until midnight and I love it. We talked about the kinds of stuff I would discuss with K or Cinderella or Britt. Even though she is 66 she is still just like talking to a great friend. I find that incredibly cool. Why am I surprised that we can discuss food, camping with a man, alcohol, insecurities, football, communication being important in every relationship, Britt’s new site giving away a vibrator, 401k fears, hitting the Powerball, dogs, clit piercings, the Big East basketball tournament, family vacations, the perfect job description and more? Really I shouldn’t be surprised. Yet I pleasantly am. Never realized I was a little bit of an ageist before. Bad, bad Becky!
A wonderful friend has opened a review site and she is kicking it off with a sex toy giveaway. Oh yeah. Mini vibrator, bay-bee. Expensive mini vibrator. Being given away. For free!
Head over HERE to enter.
You don’t even have to tell her I sent you.
I am so excited. Late Thursday I found out that I am officially going to Bradenton, FL to watch my Pirates play baseball. Sunday the 22nd the Buccos take on Cincinnati’s Reds and Monday they play Tampa Bay. I’ve never done the Grapefruit League thing before so this a brand new adventure. Way cool.
Best part? All free! Free plane tickets, free transportation to the free hotel, free shuttle to the games and free tickets. Even one free meal with the players. Only thing I have to pay for would be my souvenirs and anything I want to eat. And all of my drinks.
Fuck, this might be an expensive trip.
Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!
I went to Chicago last weekend. Many stories are still in need of being posted here, but dammit, I have been busy. And tired.
However while I was hanging out with Crystal at a cool Irish bar I asked the guy next to us to take a picture of me and Crys as I was about to drink my first Cosmo. Turns out he was from Baltimore and along on business so of Course Crys and I drug him around to a few bars with us. Nice guy. Who made out with some crazy lady (woops, getting ahead into stories…sorry!).
So nice guy from Baltimore wasn’t familiar with blogs. Crys gave him the run down which somehow led to the words “Half Nekkid Thursday” being discussed. He didn’t get it. I explained it can be all about exposure and doesn’t have to be all about sex. Which led to him posing for my camera, showing me one of my favorite parts of a man’s body…
There ya have it, yet another stranger enjoying and participating in our Thursday fun.
Happy HNT. For the full list of others participating, check out the comments over at Osbasso’s.
I woke up this morning around 4:30 AM from a dream. It was a gorgeous outdoor setting and Lisa was there. She was strong. And beautiful. Neither of us had a camera, but we knew we wouldn’t need it, that we would never forget the experience.
The tears won’t stop this morning.
Oh Lisa, you have touched so many in your short life. As often as you marveled at the hits “the cancer girl” received on her blog, I really don’t think you know how many people’s lives you touched.
Yes, I am happy you aren’t in pain anymore, but it seems that I am selfish. I miss you.
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