Top o’the morning to you. And the rest of the day as well!

We slipped away for a few days of RR week before last. Went to Las Vegas. Excuse me for whispering here, but I have to be careful since we didn’t tell  many people we were coming. Not because we didn’t care to see old friends, but the main purpose of the trip was to kid-sit the grandchildren while their parents ran the half-marathon at Red Rock Canyon, one of favorite places in the Las Vegas area. We also snuck in dinner at our favorite Thai restaurant, Lotus of Siam. This is the only Thai place I’ve seen in this country that features both northern and southern Thai food. We made certain we ordered our favorite southern Thai dish–Larb, made with spicy fried tofu and spices (instead of the traditional meat) served with slices of raw cabbage. The cabbage does a good job of hedging the dragon’s-breath heat of the food. The Thai iced tea I ordered also helped cool things down.

I’ve been looking for an excuse to post this picture of my very first Guiness (the 1/2 pint on the right) I drank in a pub in Dublin. I took to the dark beer even though I never cared for the light ones (you can pour most of them right back into the horse they came from in my opinion!). It has to be hot hot summer day to get me to drink one. I understand many first-time Guiness drinkers have to get used to the slightly bitter brew.

Hope all of you with a drop or two or, what-the-heck, not even a drop of Irish blood find your own good time to raise your glass to honor that famous animal lover, St. Patrick. Hubby’s an avowed Irishman on this day every year. Just as his T-shirt says, “Kiss Me! I’m Irish.”  And just in case you’re having trouble rounding up your friends to share a 1/2-pint or two, here’s an idea from YouTube.

Sorry to have missed the friends in Las Vegas! If any of you happen to read this (now I’ll find out who keeps up with me), we’ll catch you next time. I hope to be back here soon with some of the finer digital scenes of Las Vegas I captured this time.