Balloons, Parade, Rumbledethumps

Xander and I hate balloons. Especially the helium-filled kind. Oh, I know. We're just horrible people who can't have any fun, right? All that tree hugging and granola eating business has gone to our heads. But I fail to understand why an adult goes to the trouble to obtain a helium-filled balloon for a child when there's a 99.9% chance the child will let that balloon go, either accidentally or on purpose, and when it is quite likely to end up in a river or ocean or lake or tree. We're not big fans of balloons in general, especially when there are so many more creative ways to decorate, but the helium ones really burn us up. We think balloons should be a very, very rare treat and that there's pretty much no need to fill them with helium. There are plenty of other ways to distract children (like scaring them with puppets--see below). Here's a link:

Balloons As Litter

Anyway, this is on my mind because I saw several green balloons released this past weekend at Montreal's St. Patrick's Day Parade. We went with some friends and their adorable son. The parade crowd was a little much for the wee one, so we escaped to the upper level of a nearby cafe and watched from the window. Later, we all went back to our place for rumbledethumps, split pea soup, and apple cake. Beer was drunk. A child was traumatized by a puppet. Robin and Brett came over and played Munchkin with us. Our neighbors called to say their new son was born. Good times.