Paddy O'Platt

When they announced a St. Patrick's Day party in our ward, there were more than a few of us who lifted our eyebrows and wondered how a suburban Mormon ward would pull that off. Clearly, green beer was out. What would we have to look forward to? The answer soon came in the form of a request from the activities committee chair, who begged Roger to emcee the party... dressed as a leprechaun. Much angst followed. But as her home teacher, there was a certain amount of pressure to comply. And thus was born "Paddy O'Platt" - pictured below. Roger, of course, did a great job, even under duress. When I came up with an idea for a costume that was not too embarrassing, that seemed to help. There was Irish stew, green cookies and cupcakes, an Irish story from our resident storyteller, lovely Irish fiddle playing, a St. Patrick's Day quiz, and a very cute group of step dancers (also pictured below) from a local dancing school. It turned out to be a great party, and no one even once stated the obvious - that we are not Catholic and don't actually honor Patrick as a Saint (although our ward mission leader's given name is Patrick, and he is a real saint!).
The best part of the whole thing was when I sent the pictures below to Jana. She said Lynlee laughed and laughed to see Pa dressed up. Her comment: "I didn't know Pa was a leprechaun!" Priceless.

Time Marches On

March already, and the blog has been badly neglected. Not the only blog neglected, to be sure. In fact, all my posts are infrequent for no good reason except that life goes on. To get back in the swing of things, here is a photo taken on a "birthday lunch" with my friend Tina. Our outing was a few weeks late of my birthday, but what we lacked in accuracy we made up for in panache. We decided to cruise on down to OB for a burger at Hodad's on Newport. Probably the best burgers and fries in town - and it's a big town! I'm talking best in San Diego, not just OB. Maybe the best cheeseburgers ever created. There was a short line at the door, not bad for a Friday lunch. Fate - or timing - was on our side, as the guy at the door (can't really call him a host; maybe "dude" is better) asked if we'd like to eat in the bus. Yay! One of the outstanding architectural features of Hodad's is half an old VW bus stuck to one wall. Diners so lucky as to be invited to eat in the bus have a wooden plank (with much beloved initial carving) to eat off, where the dashboard once was. Here we are, happy as clams, waiting for our perfect burger plates. And yes, they were perfect! You can take the old hippie out of OB, but you can't really ever take OB out of the old hippie.