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A Real Live Leprechaun! and the Rest of the Parade

Top o the Morning! I know I'm a wee bit late with this post but, tis because me PC has been behaving like a bad lad. So me apologies for the delay.
For nearly 30 years North Kansas City, Missouri has been host to the Snake Saturday Parade. It is held the Saturday before St. Patrick's Day and commemorates St. Patty driving the snakes out of Ireland. Whether or not there were ever any snakes to begin with is not open to debate. The Irish and many Americans don't need truth to get in the way of lore or tradition, especially when celebrations are involved. This post is a photo blog of my first time attending the Snake Saturday parade on March 10, 2012 in North Kansas City.

And what would a St. Patrick's Day or Snake Saturday Parade be without a Genuine Irish Leprechaun! Tis true! He'll only appear once in this post. After you've looked at the other pictures and scroll back to the top, he will have disappeared! Leprechauns do that, they're sneaky little guys.


Genuine Irish Leprechaun!


Opening motorcade


Bagpipers!

What's a parade without bagpipes!

Crazy Characters...check out their socks

Green hair, green hats, lots of smiles

Lots of motorcycles

No hat Mom. I want a green face and green hair! (and he's just watching the parade)

Those cutie patooty Sweet Potato Queens

Winnetonka High School marching band

Green hats! everyone was wearing them!

 Oak Park High School marching band

I've lived here for 14 years, can you believe this was my first Snake Saturday Parade?

Balloons always look great on floats

The dogs are coming!

Didn't wear anything green? No problem, street vendors can help with that.

Brownie float! Brownies are kind of like fairies and fairies are magical like leprechauns, so of course there were Brownies! Isn't she cute!?!

A clown with his relationship status. Think he's not on Facebook?

More green crazy costumes!

 There were tens of thousands of people at the parade. Most likely the biggest crowd in attendance history!

And with good reason, temperature was in the 70s. The weather was perfect!
 
This Drill Team was working it!

There were lots of 'Irish' dogs. Not sure if this borders on abuse though.

Wave at the cowboy on the magnificent steed.

This city of Independence brought Engine No. 1. Isn't it a beautiful old truck?
  
Green beads, they're not just for Mardi Gras

I don't think his hair is that long. What about you?

Best legs in the whole parade!

They are angels!

Those crazy Renaissance folk...here's the Hunchback

These kids worked hard in this parade passing out candy

A Leprechaun with his Pot O' Gold


The Oak Park High School marching band

Green's a good color for her, don't you think?



Check out that balloon sculpture...it's a piece of art!


 In case you were wondering, the photographer wore green too.




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Rainy Days, DST and The Rum Diary

I skipped church this morning in favor of sitting in bed with the cat listening to the rain, while drinking coffee and writing. Sitting in bed with a cup o’ Joe on a weekend morning ranks in my personal Top Ten things I love to do. Not feeling guilty about the church thing though, me and God are tight. So it’s all good. But I did lose that hour last night as did a lot of the world and I have to get it back sometime you know. It’s not like they’re going to give me back my hour at work on Monday morning! As far as that Leap Year extra day stuff goes, consider this: financially, you only benefit if you are paid hourly. I am not, so this was a 'day without pay' for me and my employer got to reap those rewards. But if you are paid on an hourly basis or you were born on February 29, Congratulations, I truly hope you had a terrific day and celebration:)
The cat finally stopped biting my feet and has settled down for a short nap, back to this post…


Last night we watched The Rum Diary with Giovanni Ribisi and of course Johnny Depp. You should know that I love Johnny Depp, but that’s not what I want to talk about this morning. Giovanni Ribisi must be one of the most underrated actors in American film and TV today. He played a crazy, alcoholic, fascist writer in this film set in the turbulent 1950s Puerto Rico. It might be classified as a drama but Ribisi’s role was seriously funny and outstanding. I do not understand why he hasn’t won some kind of award yet. The Moberg character was not particularly likeable, but I was mesmerized watching him, the whole time wondering What’s this guy going to say/do next? Of course I credit some skilled writing, but what this guy did with that role was pure poetry! If you get a chance, I highly recommend this movie.


Today’s thought:

Earlier this week I read where the US Department of Justice is looking at potential price gouging for eBook sellers like Apple and B&N. To date Amazon is not guilty as they’ve kept prices down around $9.99. I personally have only recently started using the Nook on my IPad. I (naively?) thought that once we started converting over to E-Books that the price would go down. I mean: no paper or printing costs, no store overhead and no shipping. Why shouldn’t they cost less than a hard bound? What do you think?


Yesterday was a perfect weather day in Kansas City. We had clear skies and 69° F. I watched (my first ever) the Snake Saturday Parade in North Kansas City, Missouri. Reports were that yesterday was the biggest in record attendance. I was not disappointed. Not only were there throngs of people, but the parade went on for two hours! I shot a ton of pictures and because post-processing is my least favorite part of photography, I haven’t begun to look at the shoot yet. Check back later in the week and I will post my capture of the Snake Saturday revelry.


If you enjoyed this post, click one of the like/share buttons for up in the left hand corner, subscribe by email and share with your friends. I read all and appreciate your comments and emails. Thank you, for sharing part of your day with me!


PS: I’m not drinking out of the Red Mug today, it’s a blue one.


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