Rugby, Murphys, and hurling

As much as I'd like to update this blog more often, there's a few things preventing me from doing so. The main reason is my laziness. The second is that there is so much going on, I find it hard to keep up. So tonight I'm forcing myself to sit down and write. And there's a lot that has gone on.

Last weekend was the Ireland v. England rugby match for the 6 Nations Tournament. Peter McElvanna invited me to The Cooper's Tavern, his new gastropub on the capitol square. If you haven't been there before, be sure to visit. The beer selection is fantastic, both draught and bottled, and the wine selection, I've been told, is great as well (I'm not much of a wine drinking, so I took my French friends word for it). But not only is it a great place for a brew with some friends in the snug, but the food is fantastic as well. Small menu, but what they do, they do very well. But I digress, I was invited to the pub to watch the match. Among the small group, about half were Irish, so sitting down for a porter and rugby made me really homesick for Galway. Ireland admittedly did not play their best. BUT they WON! Way to go Ireland!

Later that Saturday, I headed to Milwaukee with some friends for the Admirals hockey game/Dropkick Murphys concert. I had never seen the Admirals play, but I'm always down for a little hockey so I had a great time! Nosebleed seats, of course, but that just meant that we had a better view of the entire rink. Admirals beat whatever team crawled out of Chicago to face them and then Dropkick came out. Because one of the people in our group did want her on-ice right-in-front-of-the-band pass I grabbed it and headed down to ground zero. Man, was it crazy. The whole stadium went black as they blasted The Cheiftains/Sinead O'Connor's rendition of "The Foggy Dew" then the band came in full force, guitars blaring and pipes...blaring. Unfortunately there was one guy in the crowd who didn't understand that you're gonna get pushed around a bit at a Dropkick Murphys show and he started a fight. Yeah, I fought back, but I didn't feel like I should have been kicked out of the show. I swear, concert security rent-a-cops are on a bigger power trip than the police. Ah well, best half hour of Dropkick Murphys I've ever seen.

After the show, my friends met up with me at Fitzgibbons. Great place. The bartenders were sympathetic and gave me a beer to heal some of the wounds. We hit the town a bit and I went to Champions Pub for the first time. Also a really great bar that also sponsors the Milwaukee Hurling Club

The rest of the week was uneventful until tonight when I had my first practice with the Madison Hurling Club. I've known guys on the team for awhile and they've been trying to get me to join for awhile but it wasn't until now that I've really wanted to. Let's just say that I'm really glad I've been working out all winter. If I went there without any prior training I would've been passed out before scrimmage. This sport will work you, but it is a lot of fun. All the guys I met were really nice and didn't yell at me too much for getting in the way. I definitely have a lot of work to do, but it is worth it. Should be a fun summer.