Green Beer day

No longer is St. Patrick's Day just a one-day celebration.

It has turned into a weekend-long party -- and this year, it's a three-day weekend with St. Paddy's landing on a Monday.

I rested up for tonight's official festivities and sent my uptown spies out on the town Saturday.

Despite the strong afternoon storms, my spies tell me the revelers weren't deterred.

The party started Saturday morning with the parade uptown, continued into the afternoon with Rich and Bennett's famous pub crawl and kept on going through last call at 2 a.m.

Best place to watch the partyers stagger home? The balcony from The Attic on Fifth and Tryon streets.

Best place to sleep off the pub crawl? The couches at Madison's. Staff had to keep rousing people and sending them home later in the night.

Adding to the March madness -- ACC alums in town for the tournament, although my spies tell me the Irish revelers far outnumbered the basketball fans.

On Sunday, I decided to check out the "Shamrock Shenanigans" of the Charlotte Roller Girls, who had their second home bout of the season against New River Valley. The ladies were wearing their best St. Patrick's Day garb, including green tights, wigs and T-shirts, and Cricket Arena was serving green beer as fast as the taps could pour them.

It was my first time at the derby. Some observations:

• It was more of a party than a sporting event, with people mingling in the stands and down on the floor.
  

• The more green beer was consumed, the louder the cheers got when a girl took a big hit.
  

• The sound system at Cricket is a real clunker (so are the seats for that matter). The roller girls shouldn't even bother having an announcer during the bout since no one can understand a word he is saying over that speaker system. Seriously, it must be from the stone ages.
  

I'll be back on the St. Patrick's party scene tonight where I'll be hitting Galway Hooker, Tyber Creek Pub and Connolly's. Where do you guys plan on celebrating the luck of the Irish?