I am half-Irish. I know Blanchfield doesn’t sound super-Irish, but IT IS.

My dad’s family is from Athy (lower-right on the map there), about an hour south of Dublin. I’ve been to Ireland (and it was one of my favorite vacations ever), but not to Athy, where my dad’s family is from–I’d love to go back there. (Hint, hint, Dad.)

The Ha’penny Bridge in Dublin.

When I lived in D.C., it was pretty much St. Patrick’s month. My friends and I would start celebrating as soon as it was March 1, going to pub quiz nights at 4P’s (which is apparently now Four Fields. LAME.) and Shamrockfest out in Arlington (and then at RFK.) Really, it was just an excuse to drink a lot of beer all month long.

I still love the holiday, but now that I drink a little less and live and work in Midtown-ish, which gets swarmed by the wasted bridge-and-tunnel crew, it’s lost a tiny bit of its luster.

Speaking of which, I got really excited for a green bagel this morning, and the bagel shop pulled some lame antics. They said they were out of green bagels, even though there was a platter of green bagels sitting right there. Allegedly, they were reserved for someone else, forcing me to very begrudgingly get a non-green bagel.