Yay date night! and it was the weekend that downtown was celebrating St. Paddy’s day too. Amanda taught me that St. Patrick drove all the snakes out of Ireland which I’m a little skeptical of but it seems nice of him. I don’t know exactly how you drive snakes out of anywhere. Do you shout at them? Do you chase them with whacking sticks? Do you raise a large family of mongooses? I don’t think getting rid of a snake problem by starting a rodent problem is a great solution, and then who drives Rikki Tikki Tavi and his family out of Ireland? In any case, St. Patrick, if you’re reading this could you stop by and help us out with our copperhead problem?

Our plan was to go to Centro for dinner. When we got there, after 8:00, we were told there would be an hour wait. In my shocked state I allowed them to put us on the wait list and take my phone number down before leaving to find that the Hive was much better suited to our schedule. We walked in, sat down and had beers in hand within 10 minutes. That is when Centro called and said they had a table available, 13 minutes after telling me there would be an hour wait.

Dear Centro,

Your food is amazing, but get your shit together.

Love,

Steve and Amanda

Amanda got an amber ale. They were all out of the Death by Hops cask of the night but I got another IPA that Amanda decided to try. Here’s a picture of her reaction, I think she really liked it!!!

Next up: dinner. We were both pretty hungry by now. What is it about daylight saving time that pushes your dinner schedule back an hour or two? We still get hungry at the same time but just decide to be unhappy about it and find a snack before finally getting around to dinner. The loaded tots at Busy Bee/The Hive are amazing so we started with those.

I got the left hand burger with onions cooked in some stout I think and sharp white cheddar cheese

Amanda got a chicken sandwich with some kind of basil pesto, pear and honey. Amanda won this time and about bit my face off when I tried to steal it from her.

After dinner we went to Tir na Nog for some Guinness followed by some cheap green beer. Immediately upon walking in Amanda joined two guys calling the hogs. They were so happy to run into another Arkansas fan I think they fell in love. This really set the tone for a great night of watching and interacting with very interesting people including one guy I overheard telling a stranger about how the settlers didn’t even have cell phones and they managed to find their way home so he didn’t really see what the problem.

There was an Irish rock band called The Fighting Jamesons playing. The high energy, small venue show reminded me of my punk rock days back in the 90s. I went to lots of shows in little hole in the wall places with my old high school friends back then. I nostalgia’d HARD.

My first time in a mosh pit in I guess 15 years was fun although I did get my glasses knocked off my face. They got pretty mangled before I was able to find them since there were drunken horses stomping around. Luckily I ordered them from China for 30 bucks so it wasn’t such a loss.

While searching for them I found a set of keys and saved a couple from a ruined night. The girl looked like she was about to kiss me or Amanda or both of us after their frantic search ended with me asking if the keys were theirs.

We also saw an entertaining wrestling match between some guy and two cops. They tackled him to the floor of the bar and carted him off for a free night’s stay in a suite cell at the city jail.

We also saw some bagpipers at the bar for some authentic Irish celebration. Amanda was surprised to learn there is a bagpipe class available at State so I figured I’d let you all know too.

All in all we had a blast. At the end of the night Amanda drove us home since my glasses were smashed. Thankfully we were not smashed and didn’t suffer too much the next morning. Probably a good thing that they were all out of jello shots 😉

Have you had any adventures out on the town lately?