Enquiring Minds: March 17, 2011

Enquiring Minds Want to Know is a weekly meme from Dollycas's Thoughts. The object of the meme is to answer the three questions posted each week and then link back to your post on Dollycas's Thoughts. Doing so allows bloggers to get to know each other.

This is my first week participating in this meme. I have been seeing it around several blogs and thought it looked like fun. So, without further ado, here are the questions and my answers.

1. What is your family background regarding nationality?

I by no means know the entirety of my origins, but I do know some of it. My maternal grandfather was roughly 3/4 Irish and 1/4 German and my maternal grandmother is about 1/2 English, the rest being a mixture of German, French, and Swiss. My dad's side of the family is where things really become speculative. There has not been much genealogical research done yet, but it is thought that my paternal grandfather was a mix of Irish, Scottish, and English, while my paternal grandmother is thought to be almost entirely English. Phew! That's a mouthful!

2. Have you ever eaten corned beef and cabbage, the traditional meal of St. Patrick's Day or drank green colored beer?

I prefer a good stew with colcannon and honest to goodness soda bread (not the stuff that is passed off as soda bread here; no raisins or caraway seeds!). I also refuse to drink beer that has been dyed any color, let alone green. I'll stick with my preferred Guinness if I drink at all.

3. St. Patrick's Day is celebrated in many cities in the U.S. and around the world, are there any celebrations happening near you?

I live in a college town, so I would have to guess that there will be bar crawls tonight. However, my bar patronage days were short-lived, so I plan on staying in; having a nice dinner of beer-braised Irish stew, colcannon, and soda bread; watching movies; and going to bed.