Top 10 Irish pubs in U.S.

Here you go, just in time for St. Pat's Day.
For Columbus folks, the closest one to us is in the Florida panhandle.

The squirrel bit it

From Michael's Facebook post Monday: "listening to the Roto-Rooter guys trying to dispatch a clog in a pipe, which is apparently an animal that found its way down a vent pipe into the plumbing. Several hundred dollars, of course, but it probably sucked more to be the animal than it does to be the home owner."
We'd had some sink issues in one of the bathrooms. Michael, the greatest handyman ever, couldn't fix it. "Gotta call the plumber," he said, which is never good news.
Fortunately for me, Michael drew the short straw Monday and came home from work to meet the Roto-Rooter guys.
After a little while, the workers said they had some bad news. An animal, probably a squirrel, appeared to be in the system. (already dead, of course, but he had to come out.)
Michael said one of the men had to go sit in the truck toward the end of the "surgery" because it was just too intense. The guy who stayed inside said he'd seen everything.
Thanks, Roto-Rooter. Anytime I complain about my job, I'll think about yours.

Nips and tucks on the decline

The number of nips and tucks seem to be drying up. Or at least slowing down. The economy is largely to blame, it seems, with people going for less-pricey procedures. (Then there's the occasional botch job which can make would-be patients wary.) Yet I have to believe that money is the greater culprit. After all, we live in a country where beauty is skin deep.

Cheese race in England gets the ax

This is most unfortunate.
Hope everyone's having a great weekend.
Remember to spring forward before you go to bed. Or, as Mr. Owen suggested, set your alarm for 2 a.m. and do it.

A generation of sedentary lives

This is alarming.
At the risk of bugging you with the old refrain "When I was a kid. ..." I will tell you what recreation was like when I was a kid: In the summers, my mother basically told me and my brother to get lost--go play outside. Fortunately we had lots of neighborhood friends to pal around with. I mostly remember making forts in the woods, climbing trees and going to the park to float homemade boats down a creek. If it rained, we made forts out of bunk beds.
Obesity is slowly but surely becoming a national epidemic. Thoughts? Suggestions for improvement?

A Bag of Interesting

We just had these with dinner. Wow. We've had some of the other brands of Chex Mix but this one, so far, is my favorite.
Not exactly heart smart, but they practically cried out to me from the shelf.
I knew you'd understand.

MSG: Friend or foe?

And who isn't thinking about Monosodium glutamate?
My friend Rachel was telling me that she ate some Chinese food yesterday and, though she checked for MSG signs in the restaurant, still ate it by mistake. Apparently she can really tell when she's eaten it: She gets that bloated feeling; and she said it's still lingering today.
My reaction: I feel full quickly as I'm eating this type of food, but then not long after--within a few hours--I get incredibly hungry. Rachel, a nutritionist, says that comes from the MSG.