Heck yea we did! We invented Halloween! It’s true! Look it up! Its original name was called “Oíche Shamhna” which means “end of summer”. Thousands of years ago there was a tribe of farmers called the Celts. They knew that the sun helped make their crops grow, so when autumn came the sun began to fade and they believed that the sun would be winter’s prisoner for six months. Pope Gregory (who I was named after, I think) standardized the date of All Saints’ Day, or All Hallows’ Day.

Anyway enough on the history lesson, in Ireland we get a week off school!! Imagine a week long event of no school that leads up to the craziest night any kid could ask for. The neighborhood I grew up in there were tons of kids, I am talking maybe 50 or 60, and most of them were just wild and bold. Sticking a smoke bomb or lighting fire crackers right before you ring the door bell and run off was the norm. Candy was not the interest, chaos was the goal. It was like night of the living hooligans. The reason candy was not much of any interest was, they didn’t give any out. It was fruit!, bananas, apples, and peanuts…..oh so many peanuts. Try hauling a grocery bag of nuts around all night. Maybe thats why I do not like nuts.

Halloween in America is a little different, my 1st Halloween here I had to check all my candy to make sure no one stuck a needle in it or poisoned me, I know Halloween is to be scary, but that just takes it to another level. It kinda takes the fun out of the whole thing. Also now people just drive their kids around in their SUV’s to each door as the kids tuckNroll for some candy grabbin. Irish Halloween was about games, like bobbing for apples, or pennies in a basin of water or trying to get a bite of an apple that is tied on a string with your hands beind your back. We would make chocolate covered apples and things like that. Mom and Dad made Halloween a lot of fun for Jenn and I, it was a big party for the four of us, the house was done up in decorations and games were played for hours in our living room. It was just a big party for the four of us. I miss that.

One year I wanted desperately to have a pumpkin to carve. So Dad got the next best thing, we carved a turnip! Nobody but my dad would think of something like this, it was awesome! we put a sparkle firecracker in it, and it was the talk of the street, a turnip with sparks flying out its eyes and mouth, I remember running up and down the street showing it to everyone, then I remember it starting to smell like cooked turnip as it got hot. That was just funny and very Irish. Anyway, those are my Halloween memories. I am thinking next year we do Halloween Irish Style.

Even though his Birthday is not until Thursday, we celebrated this evening. I am holding out until Thursday to officially post the Limerick. So until then here are some pictures to hold you over!

For now I will just let the pictures do the talking.

Well, we are back from our visit to The Big Apple. This was our 3rd trip there; our 1st trip was when we got engaged, so for our four year wedding anniversary, we went back. We had an absolute blast this trip. We ate at so many great places, especially the pizza places. The Lion King was one of the most amazing productions I have ever seen. The opening performance was overwhelming and moving. We were 3rd row center, you could not have asked for better seats. The lobby of the theater had an incredible view over looking

Times Square, which is one of my favorite places to go. We went to a Jazz place one night, saw Brooklyn, The Bronx, Harlem, just about all the villages of Manhattan, walked the Brooklyn Bridge, Central Park, Trump Tower, (my goodness does he like Gold). Went to Tom’s Restaurant from Seinfeld fame, also ate at the Soup Nazi’s place. We also got to see Hulk Hogan up close and personal at the airport, Jackie almost ran him over, I tried to saw Hi, but I could not bring myself to speak, I was so awe struck at how massive he was. He was with his family, so we saw the whole Hogan gang. It was like a big Hogan Convention (hahaa)

Going back to

Bow Bridge was very a very special moment for us both, this was where we both decided that our lives would forever change and we would be together forever. It’s like going to a place that is engraved with memories and emotions, seeing the bridge in the distance as we walked up to it, there was big anticipation and butterflies, much like walking up to it the 1^st time before the proposal. Stepping onto the bridge brought it all back. Four years have flown by, and we have been blessed in so many ways in such a short time. Going back to “the spot” and reflecting on that is a tradition that will forever be a part our marriage. It is a place we can one day take our kids and tell them all about it.

Day Five pictures are posted, for those who were checking out each day. This is the last of the pictures. I hope you enjoyed them.

Greg

Today four years ago I married my soul mate. Amen.

Operation Chupacobra took an unexpected turn of events last night. At around 9:30pm I was relaxing at headquarters when I heard a gunshot just outside the door. I slowly went to look and see what it was, but did not see anything. Then I heard voices yelling, I went outside to see what was going on, I saw my neighbors were running around the yard with flashlights and a .38 pistol, next thing I see the chupacobra running accross my yard, (if I could have put some Benny Hill music to the sight, it would have been one for the books). The chupacobra had suffered a flesh wound but managed to escape! There is no telling how far he made it. It seems my neighbors also have been conducting their own Operation Chupacobra for weeks now, they have been laying traps, and using heavy artillery to rid the beast.

In other news, as Jackie and I were driving home last night, we noticed that the flower bed all around one of our neighbors was on fire, it seems their grill had spilled some ashes onto the pine straw, and it spread all around their deck. I put it out with a hose and all was well, I do not think the chupacobra had anything to do with this, it does not seem like any tactics they would use.

I have refilled the hole again, but this time, Scooter and I gathered up about a gallons worth of her special treats so the chupacobra will get a nice big suprise when he/she digs up a new hole. Operation Chupacobra just got kicked up a notch. Someone light a match.

My mother and grandmother would say the strangest things to me as a child. Many times I knew what they meant, but had no idea what it had to do with what I was doing wrong. My grandmother would yell at me down the driveway “STOP ACING THE MAGGOT! Ok, so let’s think about this, I knew this meant for me stop doing what I was doing, but maggots? acting? I’m confused. “You’re a right eejit” she would say, “I am”? I would ask…I thought I was Irish. “ohh you think you’re a right article”. You mean I am in the paper? “Now wipe that puss off your face” she would tell me, as I try and eat my cabbage, potatoes with a side of sheep hearts.

My mom was just as confusing, she would say things to me that were just impossible when you think about it. Like when she would grab me by the ear and say “look at how filthy the inside of your ears are, just look at them! Are you trying to grow potatoes in there?” Ok 1st off, look at the inside of my ears? Are you serious? I tried, it’s not possible. 2nd, potatoes? Growing in my ear? That would be a right sight to see. The visual imagery alone is enough to scare me into cleaning my ears daily. “Gregory Hogan, if and when you fall off that wall and break both your legs, don’t come running to me!” Again, not possible.

I have also been called lots of interesting things in my life, Irish people have the strangest names for children who need a good telling off, this will be the clean version of that list. Boyo, eejit, git, article, divil, dosser, gobshite, squealer, and thick. I am sure there are tons more, but I am just jadded from writing, and I think I will now go hit the sheets for the night.

*WARNING* I just read that Conkers or “Hourse Chestnuts/Buckeye’s” are highly poisonous and can kill you if eatten. DO NOT EAT. I do remember tasting one when I was a a kid, that might explain a lot.

Autum is here and the leaves are starting to fall. This is the time of year for all young boys in Ireland to play a game called “Conkers”. The school I went to had four conker trees that grew along the back of it, these were huge tree’s, and every year they would produce conkers. What is a conker? It is a beautiful brown smooth shiney nut about as big as a golf ball. The are very hard like a chestnut. The game conkers is played like this. You take a conker and drill a hole in it, then take a shoe lace and tie a knot in one end. Run the other end through the hole in the conker until it sits nicley at the other end with the knot. Now you would find another person with the same setup and one person would hold their conker out so it hung from their hand. The other person would swing their conker into it and you would go back and forth until on broke, if yours broke, you have been conkered. Some kids would try and be smart and have conkers froozen from the year before, but these were easy to spot, because the conker would no longer have the nice brown shine a new conker has. There was always a great big hunt each morning before class started for a great big conker that may have fallen from one of the trees the night before. When one was found it was the talk of the school. I have not seen a conker tree here in the USA. This past time was was great and there were a lot of good times, and a lot of heart breaks when a boy would have his conker smashed to smithereens by another boy. Espically when that conker had been king of the hill, and its reign was over. It was sometimes a boys 1st life lesson in defeat. If I had to pick a “thing” that reminded me of Autum in Ireland more then anything it would be the conkers, they are wrapped in a very spikey casing, but once you crack open the shell the prize that is inside was, well….beautiful. Much like people in the world. It’s what is inside that matters, and usually most people are just conkers. (hahaa, get it? I’m so whitty) Anyway Google tells me they are Horse Chestnuts. Does anyone know if we have them here in the USA? To me they will always be conkers. I sure wish I had one.