17 Mar - St. Patrick's day

I brought Sam back to Regina so he could take the bus back to Saskatoon, and I had a night off before heading back east, which means I got to hang out with Marian!

Marian took me to a family dinner, which is indeed an noteworthy event given the magnitude of her family! It's a totally chaotic experience of names and faces and beautiful noise. For this Irish family, the meal was an important celebration of St. Patrick’s Day, though hardly as significant as little Meg’s sixth birthday (an occasion that introduces me to Polly Pockets??)

Marian’s dad in fact was able to provide a very satisfactory history of St. Pat before we indulge in birthday cake with green icing AND sprinkles! We take home shamrock shaped sugar cookies with green icing, made by Marian's mom and subdivided into tupperware for each family. Talk about food infused with love.

When we're home, Marian and I sit up chatting over tea and avoiding random, violent attacks from her kitten Buddy, who likes to flail himself and our heads and bodies without warning. We survive a number of scratches and clawings until at last, Buddy is sequestered to the basement.