Irishfest 2000 Recap

Ahhh, where to begin? It was a great weekend, but FRICKIN COLD! Anyways, I stopped by to see my friend(s) Kevin and Jess, and their new baby girl, Piper. Omg she's soooo cute! And it's like "omg she's so tiny, was Aidan ever that tiny?!" Anywho. Got to Irish fest kinda on the late side, but that was ok. There wasn't really THAT much that we missed. Spent the day shopping, drinking, and waiting for my sister-in-law Bridget and her boyfriend Charley to get their arses up there. They got off to a late start, and plus Charley got a speeding ticket for going like 85 in a 65 on I-87. It was the old "I was trying to make up time" excuse. Bad, bad Charley! You can't pull that shit in NY on I-87. Especially on a weekend!

Anyways, we hung out, drank, shopped, drank some more, checked out some bands and wound up eating, of all things, GREEK FOOD. Yes, GREEK FOOD at an IRISH FEST. Seriously.
No lie. I can't make this up.

They seemed to have fun. Aidan especially. He got see my "house", which was this fabulous inflatable thing that had the logos of my favorite drink slathered all on it, with the tag line "3 Beers Strong!" on it. It was the Irish fest's VIP lounge, and lemme tell ya....That thing is pretty fucking cool. I would set it up in my backyard if I could get my hands on it. Haha. Coolness. Aidan also enjoyed hanging out at the house, where he met this strange, yet cool fellow...a giant, walking pint of Guinness (mother's milk). It was cool. The people from Guinness took his photo as well, and they said that they might post it on Guinness's website. They also gave him, myself, and my wife a set of Guinness/Harp beaded necklaces. (Green beads, with a Guinness/Harp medallion stating "Half way to St Pats!"). Aidan also met some of my friends, who I haven't seen in ages...however they were a bit trashed, so I don't think they remembered anything...or even acting weirder then usual. But Aidan showed them a thing or 2, especially when he outdrank them in a contest. (NB: If you think I really gave my kid beer, then you are fucking retarded).

So I think the hilight of the fest was not only seeing Seven Nations again, but seeing Rathkeltair AND Seven Nations both on stage at the same time. See, what happened was Neil Anderson was part of Seven Nations waaay back in the day, along with Nick Watson. But Neil and Nick parted ways with Seven Nations, and in the early 2000's formed Rathkeltair. Now since they were former band mates, they tend to play some of the same jams from the "old days"...so they did a set of 3 songs together, a sort of "mini-reunion". It was great to hear the OLD OLD tunes with the original lineup, as well as Neil tearing it up on his Highland bagpipes. But here's what was cool....he was doing a tune with Uillean Pipes, and he started playing the tin whistle...AT THE SAME TIME. I was blown away by such talent....it was like, HOLY SHIT!. Aidan fell asleep halfway through Seven Nations's set, but he did get a kick out of the first half, laughing and clapping his way through "Soft Gator Girl", and bouncing and laughing to "Winding me Up", even to falling asleep to "Twelve". I was amazed he slept through "Last Call" since they CRANKED that up to the max. I think hearing the old tunes with Rathkeltair helped keep him asleep... It was a great night. BUT IT WASN'T OVER YET! He woke up at like 10:45pm when we put him in the car, and he didn't go back to sleep. So we went to the hotel where Bridget, Charley, 7 Nations, and other fest people were staying at, and chilled to about 1am...kicking back, drinking more, watching Aidan explore the hotel room. He didn't want to sleep. It was a great day....seriously.

For my friend, Rebecca :) (and yes, I am SO THERE!)

Tentative Band Schedule
for the 2008 Annual Irish 2000 Festival
Please note: Performance times are subject to change without notice.

Coors Light Contemporary Music Stage
Sept. 19th (5:00 - 11:15)
Greenwhich Meantime 5:00 - 5:40
Neck 5:55 - 7:10
Carbon Leaf 7:25 - 8:35
Enter the Haggis 8:50 - 9:55
The Tossers 10:10 - 11:15


Coors Light Contemporary Music Stage
Sept. 20th (Noon - 11:00)
MacTalla Mor 12:00 - 12:50
The Killdares 1:25 - 2:15
Celtic Cross 2:50 - 3:50
Greenwhich Meantime 4:25 - 5:25
Great Big Sea 6:00 - 7:30
Carpenter's Union Local 608 Pipe Band 7:40
Seven Nations 8:05 - 9:20
Rathkeltair 9:55 - 11:00

Guinness Traditional Music Stage
Sept. 19th (5:00 - 9:30)
Seamus Kennedy 5:00 - 6:15
Lunasa 6:30 - 7:45
Barrage 8:00 - 9:30


Guinness Traditional Music Stage
Sept. 20th (11:30 - 11:00)
Seamus Kennedy 11:30 - 12:10
Cara 12:40 - 1:20
The McKrells 1:50 - 2:35
Beoga 3:10 - 4:00
Celtic Spring 4:30 - 5:30
Lunasa 6:00 - 7:00
Gaelic Storm 7:30 - 9:00
Hair of the Dog 9:30 - 11:00

Killians Red Pub Stage
Sept. 20th (11:30 - 9:00)
Shakespeare in the Alley 11:30 - 12:10
Flynn 529 12:30 - 1:10
Frank Jaklitsch and Steve Gray with John Cromie 1:30 - 2:15
Seamus Kennedy 2:35 - 3:15
Kevin McKrell 3:35 - 4:15
Cara 4:45 - 5:25
Cliudan 5:45 - 6:30
MacTalla Mor 6:50 - 7:40
The Killdares 8:10 - 9:00

Pipe

Barbara McCarthy, Irish Storyteller 10:30 - 11:00
Who's Your Paddy 11:00 - 11:45
Irish Set Dancers 12:00 - 12:30
Damsha Beatha (Ceili Dance Demonstration) 12:40 - 1:10
Barbara McCarthy, Irish Storyteller 1:30 - 2:00
Domino the Great Magic Show 2:15 - 2:45
Iona Troupe (Irish Step Dance) 3:00 - 3:20
Campbell School of Irish Dance 3:35 - 3:55
Boland School of Irish Dance 4:10 - 4:30
Farrell School of Irish Dance 4:45 - 5:05
Schenectady Pipe Band 5:15 - 5:30
Who's Your Paddy 5:30 - 6:15

Irish 2000 Proudly Serves...

Um...yea

Rutgers drops to 0-2 after an embarrassing loss to UNC 44-12. That's about all I have to say. Yea. Hrmm.....looks like I'll be tailgating the rest of the season :)

Anyways, planning a trip back home next week. I need to relax a bit, and usually going home does that for me. Besides, 2 of my childhood friends had babies and I have yet to see them. My friend Kevin and his wife Jess welcomed Piper Sofia into the world on September 5th. I've known Kevin for like, 22 years at least. He lived down the block from me, and we've hung out ever since. He's a really good person and I'm happy for him. On the other side, my other friend Dave and his wife Kristen had their baby on uh..the end of August I believe. I didn't really get the name (I think Kayleigh?), but I heard she's a wonderful bundle of joy. I've known Dave since middle school, but we didn't hang out often since he lived on the other side of town. So it seems out of the trifecta, I was the first to have kids and apparently set off a chain reaction :)

The way I see it, Aidan has 2 girlfriends already ;)

Aftermath

Everything turned out ok. No real major damage, just some branches down, small debris in the roadways and minor wind damage. It's actually a beautiful day out!! I know there were tress down and power outages in Sheepshead Bay in Brooklyn, but nothing here to report. It was just an intense rain, and 35 mph winds at least.

Like I said, it's a beautiful day out! We took Aidan to the park and had an impromtu picnic lunch, with sandwiches from Wawa, then we ran errands which included buying baby food at Shop-Rite. Most of their baby food was on sale(i.e. Gerber Graduates lil microwavable cups 10/$10, the Lil entrees were 5/$10, etc).

Anyways, I'm just writing an update to let you know, yes, we survived. And surprisingly enough, there is minor flooding. SHOCKER!

Batten down the hatches!

Tropical Storm Hanna is roaring through the area as I sit here. Nothing major, just really humid and it's POURING out. Like, literally, buckets. The storm drains are having trouble keeping up. No wind! So far it's all rain. They had tropical storm warnings out since Friday night, with flood watches as well. Now it's updated to a Tropical Storm Wind Warning until 11pm ET, with the crawler on the Weather Channel also stating that people should seek shelter and get emergency kits in order. It's going to be a long night, and I hope all goes well and we don't get flooded too bad. Everyone is now keeping a close eye on Hurricane Ike, seeing which way it'll turn. I'll write more after this storm is over.

Latest Advisory: 2pm EDT

# Location: 37.6N, 76.6W
# Moving: Northeast near 25 mph
# Winds: 50 mph
# Pressure: 29.32 inches
# Next Update: 5pm EDT
# High Tide: 11:47 PM EDT
# Low Tide: 6:23 PM EDT
for New Brunswick

Weather Channel.com

Tropical Storm Wind Warning

/O.CON.KPHI.TI.W.0001.000000T0000Z- 080907T0300Z/ SUSSEX-WARREN-MORRIS- HUNTERDON-SOMERSET-MIDDLESEX-MERCER- GLOUCESTER-CAMDEN-NORTHWESTERN BURLINGTON-CHESTER-MONTGOMERY- BUCKS- DELAWARE-PHILADELPHIA- 245 PM EDT SAT SEP 6 2008

...TROPICAL STORM WIND WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 11 PM EDT THIS EVENING...

...NEW INFORMATION...

AT 200 PM EDT...THE CENTER OF TROPICAL STORM HANNA WAS ABOUT 100 MILES WEST- SOUTHWEST OF FENWICK ISLAND DELAWARE AND 170 MILES SOUTHWEST OF ATLANTIC CITY NEW JERSEY.

...AREAS AFFECTED...

THIS STATEMENT RECOMMENDS ACTIONS TO BE TAKEN BY PERSONS IN SOUTHEASTERN PENNSYLVANIA AND PARTS OF NORTHERN AND WESTERN NEW JERSEY.

...WATCHES/WARNINGS...

IN ADDITION TO THE TROPICAL STORM WARNING...THERE IS ALSO A FLOOD WATCH IN EFFECT.

Labor Day Weekend

Nothing special, really. Spent Saturday chillin and lounging around the house, playing Drawn to Life on the DS, watching TV, and playing with Aidan. Oh and of course grillin meat. MMMM Tasty!


Sunday, packed up the kid, wife, and took a drive down to Great Oak Marina in Chestertown, Maryland for a day of fun on a boat. It fricking rocked, and the people are so fun and great to be around. Well, the car ride down was fun, it went something like this: RT 1 to I-95...hellish. I-95 driving...OOO look, Welcome to Pennsyltucky! (*snore*), driving near Philly "Going back philly, I don't think so!." Passing Philadelphia Eagles Stadium, hurling insults while doing so...Wachovia Center, hurling more insults at the Flyers (omg I didn't think they are right NEXT to each other!!) Ben Franklin Bridge...:Wow cool, but man it's fucking rusty as hell"...Battleships and Aircraft carriers docked cool shit, Welcome to Delaware = Wayne's World flashback "uh, hi we're in Delaware"...smelly smelly smelly! Dunkin Donuts at Delaware...no changing table in the bathroom had to change Aidan on the floor, let's complain to the jerks for that shit. Back on the road, beat up rusty pickups with rebel flag stickers..."We're in Redneck country!" Welcome To Maryland Whew almost there. CORN CORN CORN SOYBEANS SOYBEANS SOYBEANS CORN CORN CORN CORN SOYBEANS then *wham* Marina! ABOUT TIME...Ahhhh, nice. hanging on the docks, waiting for the dingy to take us to the boat. Aidan HATES lifejackets! poor guy! Chillin on the boat, playing "pass the beer and food" down the line of 32 boats strung together. Fucking great.



That's pretty much how it went. Great fun! Great Food! There was 32 boats all strung together, and we all hung out hopping from one boat to the other, passing food down the line and back, passing beer, and thank god not passing women *shudder* It was fun to have one day of relaxing, drinking, having good food with good friends. Aidan especially had a blast. Flirting with the ladies, jabbering his jibberish, and working his way around the couch. Apparently the boat moving compensated for his wobbly balance at the moment, so it seemed to straighten him out so he was able to "walk" around the couch, hanging on to the edge as he is so fond on doing, far much easier then at home.




But then it was night, and we had to depart back to Jersey, since I had to work on Monday. Aidan slept through the ride home. We didn't get back until around midnite, and all was well. Great end to a great day.

Monday, worked. Then got home, and drank. Watched Rutgers LOSE their season opener to Fresno State...on home turf. Drank more. Wine, Sake, Rum...grillin, and stuff.

Yup

Still here. Been busy and all, stressing about the house being on the market for so long. Anyways, tomorrow proves to be fun seeing as we are heading to the pier to speed around in a boat. Will give more later :)