March Madness

I can't believe it snowed last week. We received another foot of nasty white stuff on Monday night, sending me into another spiral of disgust and hatred for winter. To make matters worse, people keep talking about how it was in the 70s at this time last year, which was just like rubbing salt into a wound.

So there we were on the first day of Spring, with a foot of snow on the ground and me gnashing my teeth and wringing my hands in despair. I know I'm dramatic, but we were supposed to be done with this! I thought I was out of the woods once we reached St. Patrick's Day! 

Spike and I went to the Homeland once again for the Corned Beef and Cabbage Dinner held at the church.  Though in the past we had enjoyed balmy temperatures and Spring-like weather, this year the weather was snowy and cold.  As soon as we got off the Pike in New York, the snow started coming down fairly heavily and was even sticking to the ground.  Thankfully, it didn't last that long and the next day we were able to grab a beer and attend the Hoosick Falls St. Patrick's Day Parade without incident.  We even got invited to ride on one of the floats, but declined... it was too cold!

 

The Corned Beef and Cabbage dinner went well and my mom worked the door as Spike and I enjoyed the dinner.... at least the veggies and bread were delicious!  We went to visit David at the Country Store and brought him dinner.  He's been working hard all winter, so at least someone is happy about the cold and snow (the store is at a ski resort)!  We left early Sunday morning to get back in plenty of time for St. Patrick's Day festivities with the Kitowicz/Andersons.  Spike and I had helped Jimmy brew a red ale back in February that was done just in time for the holiday.  We celebrated Seamus's birthday with beer and cake and wore our green with pride!

The weekend after St. Patrick's Day was Maple Sugaring Weekend in New Hampshire, which I roped Lynn and Meghan into attending.  Lots of New Hampshire Sugar Shacks were hosting open houses with tours, hay rides, and free samples!  I mapped out a few that I thought would be fun to visit based on the best samples provided and the most kid-friendly activities, but the event turned out to be a bust.  The first place had samples, but you weren't allowed inside.  The second place had nothing at all besides a man in a shed boiling sap.  The third place had good samples (including my first taste of sugar on snow), but was having trouble with their boiler.  The fourth place was much too crowded, so we decided to head home.  It was most likely a good thing we did because, as you can probably tell by Meghan's face, it was really cold.  Despite the frigid temperatures and lack of syrup, it was still a great day to spend with two of my favorite girls!