Really Busy Weekend Report

Friday- We had a party at Lir to celebrate my roomate Ern's recent graduation from law school, in addition to her upcoming 30th birthday. So much fun! Her brother and I found all sorts of embarrassing photos to use for decorations, which Ern loved, and Timm had also designed some awesome t-shirts with her picture on the front. In case you're wondering, A-Face is an abbreviation for "Assface," a term of endearment that we like to call Ern. When ordering the cake, Timm didn't feel like getting into the whole explanation of A-Face with the middle-aged bakerwoman, so he told her that it was for his friend Aface, pronounced to rhyme with "Apache." Of course, nothing that I plan is complete without some sort of glitch, and there was one small error on my part. I bought a bunch of streamers, party props, and a happy birthday banner and handed them off to Timm before heading back to my apartment to get ready with Ern for the party. When we arrived to Lir, Timm asked "Did you do this on purpose?"

Me: "Do what on purpose?"

He points to the banner:

that says HAPPY RETIREMENT.

Much later in the evening, the letters were rearranged to spell HAPPY TERMITE ERN.

All in all, a very fun evening. Some pictures:

Saturday- Another day packed with more important events. In the morning, I attended the christening of my niece Maggie. An adorable little old Irish man performed the ceremony, and I did feel a tinge of good ole Catholic guilt about the fact that I don't really go to church anymore, but, oh well, I'm sure that's one of the least of my sins. We all headed out to lunch after the ceremony, and from there, my sister, cousins and I rushed around Framingham and Natick in preparation for my mother's 60th birthday. We threw her a surprise party at Molly Malone's in the Sheraton Tara hotel and had about 60 guests arriving. The plan worked out perfectly- the baptism was a perfect excuse for my sister Eri to be in town from California, and my mother looked stunned to walk in and see a large crowd of her family, friends, and colleagues. Here I am with my mom:

Everyone seemed to have a great time, and it was nice to catch up with the hometown crowd. We had a very townie evening, when after the party, Eri and I headed out with the Mulvey boys to the Tin Alley Grill, a restaurant where we both waitressed when we were younger. We stumbled upon a very surreal karaoke night, with a crowd so bizarre that Chris commented that he felt like we were in a David Lynch movie: local college students, aspiring rap stars, sketchy looking old people, and a dude with a cowboy hat, cane, and terrible voice, which he utilized to sing two of the longest songs in existence- "American Pie" and "Stairway to Heaven." Seriously, who karaokes to Stairway? I joked that they needed to install one of those No Stairway To Heaven signs from Wayne's World. I took some photos, but they don't even come close to capturing the weirdness. Eri and I brought down the house with our rendition of Kenny Rogers' "The Gambler."

Sunday- Spent the day visiting family, including my two nieces. Gaze upon their cuteness!