Mom's 65th Birthday!

On May 9th, my mom will celebrate her 65th birthday. In honor of her big day, we hosted a Mexican fiesta at our house with Sean and Alex. Complete with sombreros, maracas, homemade guacamole, salsa, enchiladas, rice, beans, margarita mousse, pomegranate margaritas, white sangria, Corona, Dos Equis and cafe Mexicano, we definitely made the most of the Mexican theme.

The menu for the evening

The table scape

Group photo

We played some Dance Central and my mom and Rich were (not surprisingly) really good! I guess Lady Gaga brings out the dancer in all of us!

Birthday Girl

Happy Birthday Mom!

2011 Run for the Border Race

Last year on Cinco de Mayo, my friend Amy called me with a frantic phone call. She asked “Shannon, why are there people running around downtown with sombreros, maracas, and race numbers? I want in!” Since I follow the local race scene pretty closely, she knew I was the right person to call. I told her it was the Run for the Border race that occurs on Cinco de Mayo every year. Enough said. In 2011, we would be participating in this race.

Run for the Border was a 3 to 3.5 mile race with no set course. Every runner was on a two-person team and at 5:00 pm, we were given a list of checkpoints. Then we were to determine the quickest route to each checkpoint and at 6:30, the race began with teams starting every 10 seconds. Each team was given a green card that had to be stamped as we reached each checkpoint. Partners had to run together and pass each checkpoint as a team.

As we geared up for the race, we learned there may be some alcohol involved. In an effort to “train” for the event, we scheduled a practice run a few weeks prior…that also included a few cocktails. Ironically, our training route was very similar to the actual run. From our practice run, we learned: 1.) Shannon runs better on liquor 2.) Amy runs better on beer. This already put us ahead of the pack! In addition, we both work downtown and Amy lives downtown, so we know street locations very well. We determined our team name as Dos Borrachas and Amy had T-shirts made. We were ready for race day!

We arrived at the starting line at 5 pm and picked up our list of checkpoints. The race committee conveniently arranged the starting line at a sponsored bar known as the Blind Pig. Based on our research, I ordered myself a margarita and Amy ordered a Corona. We were off to a good start. We strategically planned our route and waited for the race to begin. Our fan club arrived just in time and then we were off!

To our surprise, our first checkpoint was at the starting line! We had to go through a bouncy house. This is when things started to get a little ugly…

We jumped in and navigated through the first part of the obstacle course then approached the climbing wall. If you have ever watched young kids play in a bouncy house, just imagine adults doing the same thing 10X. The boys were pushing the girls, the boys weren’t listening to directions, the girls were getting mad, etc…
You catch my drift.

Amy and I eventually reached the top of the wall and made our way…head first…down the slide. Unlike the kid-version of the bouncy house, at the end of the slide, we found asphalt. Yes, asphalt. No fun plastic balls, no padding, not even grass! Amy described me as flying down the slide and ending up with all but my toe on the asphalt. I have the scraped knees and hands to prove it. I can say the race committee did not think this one through very well.

Already annoyed, Amy and I made our way to our first checkpoint, Channel 3 News. It was a little over a mile, but straight down Lakeside. Within the first ½ mile, Amy sprained her ankle. Yep. This same girl had broken the same foot a few months ago and has sprained it countless times. Her ankle swelled quickly, but she pushed through.

At our first checkpoint, we received a sombrero and had our picture taken with a cactus.

Next, we headed another mile to Zocalo where we were served a margarita shot. It wasn’t as bad as we expected, and we were out of there fast!

You can see Amy on the right in the picture below...

Across the street was our third checkpoint, the Harry Buffalo. We received a pair of maracas and then ran our last mile back to the Blind Pig.

At the finish, we redeemed our free beer and waited for Steve to get out of work. He met us around 7:30, when we returned to the Harry Buffalo for dinner.

When we walked into the Harry Buffalo, there were still some straggling teams who were picking up their maracas. They thought we were another team behind them and raced out the door…we had actually finished nearly 90 minutes prior. They were a little disappointed when we told them the race was over. I guess they decided to stop at a few extra checkpoints!

Cinco de Mayo 2011 was a memorable one and I completed my first drink and run race. There were over 1,100 runners (561 teams) and while some of them were quite serious, many more were doing it for fun…I guess you can say we were somewhere in the middle :) We finished 150th out of 561 teams with a time of 30:46:46. We ran well and we had fun. Mission accomplished. Salud!

Cleveland's Inaugural Dyngus Day!

What is Dyngus Day? I’m glad you asked. Music, dancing, food, drinks and of course, pussy willows. After a little research, we learned that Dyngus Day is a Polish holiday celebrating the end of the restrictions of Lent and the beginning of spring! Traditionally known as Easter Monday, Dyngus Day falls on the day after Easter. Everyone is Polish on Dyngus Day!

Although Dyngus Day has been celebrated for centuries, the world’s largest Dyngus Day celebration is in Buffalo, New York. This year, Buffalo celebrated their 50th anniversary with a crowd of over 100,000. That just goes to show that Dyngus Day is no joke! It’s the impressive Buffalo party that eventually got Dyngus Day to Cleveland.

DJ Kishka is a well-known polka DJ in the area and was recently voted at Cleveland’s best DJ by Scene Magazine. Last year, DJ Kishka was asked to participate in the Buffalo festivities and was amazed at the vast interest and overall fun that was had.

Knowing Clevelanders always love another excuse to party, he thought it would be a great idea to bring it here…He had no idea he’d get the media attention and support. We’re sure happy he did!

 Since we always love an excuse to celebrate, we thought it was be nice to support his efforts to bring the holiday to Cleveland!

We started out the day with a ride from our designated driver. Thanks Rich!

Rich, Sean, Alex, Steve and I thought it would be fun to start out the day at Cleveland’s most popular Polish restaurant…Sokolowski’s University Inn. Featured several times on the Food Network, Sokolowski's has a lot of Polish food in a cafeteria style fashion.

What’s Dyngus Day without traditional Polish fare! We all chose the Polish sausage and pierogies.

There were three bars that participated in the Dyngus Day events. Self-titled "The Polish Triangle" Parkview, Happy Dog and Reddstone had scheduled events along with Polka music and Polish food all day.

Here is Parkview’s special Dyngus Day menu.

It was important that we only consume Polish beer too. We chose Tyskie and O.K Beer.

Sean’s friend Jim also joined us for the festivities. Here we're doing a shot of Krupnik, an ancient Polish honey liqueur. Na Zdrowie! That means “Cheers!” to all of you non-Dyngus Day participants.

Matching t-shirts? Yes please!

The Cleveland news media picked up the story a few days before the celebration and even showed up during the day. Here they are filming at the Parkview and discussing the different Polish beverages that would be consumed throughout the day.

The tradition holds true that on Easter Monday boys would sprinkle the girls with water and tap them with pussy willows. On Easter Tuesday, the women would return the favorite. At modern Dyngus Day parties it is common practice that both men and women trade water and pussy willow equally. The owner of the Parkview put pussy willows in the mouth of this animal at the bar to signify the beginning of Dyngus Day in Cleveland.

Na Zdrowie!

Alex was shooting water at Sean, but he wanted no part of it.

By this time, we were ready for some more Polish food. Steve and I split a Polish Dog and pierogies while Alex chose the cabbage and noodles.

DJ Kishka has established a very significant following of people so by the time he performed at 3 pm, the Parkview was packed. We knew there was a reason we got there so early!

My mom and Rich joined us and even did the polka!
Click on the link below to see a video :)

Mom & Rich do the Polka!!

After the Parkview, DJ Kishka was to perform at the Happy Dog down the street. How did we get there? An accordion parade, of course. Despite the steady rainfall, the parade was a success. There was even a float!



Jim was one of the honored individuals who got to carry the float.

My cousin Matt and his wife Jenny even joined in the fun!

The Happy Dog was another packed house.

No one wanted to miss the crowning of Miss Dyngus!

I'm not sure who made the responsible decision for us to forego a stop at the Reddstone, but I can guarantee that it translated into a less miserable day at work on Tuesday...

Overall, the day was a great success and I have no doubt that Dyngus Day will remain a Cleveland tradition. We are proud to say we participated in the inaugural Dyngus Day in Cleveland! Make sure to mark your calendars for April 9, 2012. Take the day off of work (Tuesday too?) and join in the fun!

We even made the evening news…Na Zdrowie!

A night in Baltimore and a day in Fairfax

My great friend Jenny is just a few weeks away from giving birth to her little girl so when I received an invitation to her baby shower, I made my travel arrangements. We don’t get to see each other very often and this was a good opportunity. Another friend of mine works at Morgan State in Baltimore, so I gave her a call and arranged to stay at her apartment for the weekend.

It was a very quick trip (about 24 hours), but it was fun. On Saturday night, Liberty and I went out in the Fells Point area of Baltimore where we went to dinner and had a few drinks.

The next morning I drove to Fairfax, VA for Jenny’s baby shower. She was totally spoiled by her guests, but she is well deserving J It was great to see her!