St. Patrick's day

What a weekend.  This past weekend was Murphysboro's annual St. Patrick's day celebration and what a great time.  To start it off we met Bailey, Shad and the grandtwins uptown to watch the parade.  The grandtwins really enjoyed it, especially all the dogs in the parade.  I think twin#2 waved at everything that went by.
Afterwards we all walked up the street to Brews Brothers and set upside in the sun.  The grandtwins were being good and we ended up having a couple more beers than we anticipated.  Lots of people hanging around having a good time and of course the Irish Stew competition was going on. 
When the grandtwins left I wanted to go to Molly's Pint for a beer.  On our way there we checked out the fountain which had been dyed green for the celebration.

Great job by the city of Murphysboro.
We once again set outside at Molly's Pint and ordered their Irish Red which is my favorite beer there.  They had a band playing inside and it was crowded while outside didn't have as many people as I thought there would be.  We talked to Mike and Daisy most of the time we were there plus my nephew and his wife showed up for a while.  We ended up having several more than the one I'd planned on and I ended up with a sunburned face because of it.
At this point it was time to get home for the corned beef and potatoes that the Glue had fixed which turned out awesome.
Sunday was the annual St, Patricks Day bocce tournament and the Grumpy Shillelagh's set out to defend our title.  What a deference a year makes especially in the weather after last year being so cold.  The Glue's Irish Stew once again went over big but not as big as last year with the better weather. 
Our first game was against long time rivals the Eclectics and was on the north court and it was very fast.  Fred and the Glue tried to keep up in the game but me and Ted couldn't find our range and the Eclectics beat us 9-7.
The second game we played PBR on the middle court.  We started out on top but they came back and it was a close game all the way to the end with us winning 9-7.  Ted changed his grip and threw a lot better but I still struggled. 
The third game was against Late Comers, a last minute thrown together team who won their first two games.  We had to win to have any chance of defending our title and we rose to the occasion.  We jumped out to a 6-0 and never let them get much going, winning 9-3.
This put us in a roll off against the Eclectics and Late Comers with only one team advancing.  I had Ted roll first for us with Fred to follow.  Ted was the first thrower and made a good throw, a little more than a foot away.  The other first round throwers couldn't beat it so it went to the second round and none of them beat it either so Fred didn't have to throw.
In the playoffs we played Can't Be Trusted who had our two players who played for the Grumpy Shillelagh's last year.  I decided I need to throw first and Ted second as he was out throwing me.  I also made a minor adjustment to my stance and it really helped.  We got on Can't Be Trusted early and once again didn't let them come back, beating them 9-5 and advancing to the championship.
For the championship we played Big Muddy Monsters.  The started off leading 2-0 and we tied 2-0 but the rest was the Monsters as they walked away with a 9-4 win and the championship.