Nollaig Shona!!!!

That's Merry Christmas in Irish (or 'Happy Christmas' - they say that a lot here). Just learned it today and I'm not entirely sure how it's pronounced. Irish sounds a bit like a cross between a mumble and a slur to me sometimes. It's really pretty language once you get to hear it on a regular basis, but it's like alien speak to me. It's spoken so quickly it's hard to keep up. They're always playing Irish Language programs on RTE 4 (tv station) and all of the road signs here are written with English and Irish names on them. I was looking for a beginners course to take at the Adult Learning Center but they didn't have any available.

It's the last day of work and I've only got about 1/2 hour left. I'm looking forward to having a week and a half off. It will be a bit like being back in college. I'm going to use the afternoon to pick up a few last minute decorations, bake a few cookies, and catch up on a bit of sleep. I was up late last night baking cookies for all of the lads at work. There are only 7 of them who are direct employees so it wasn't too bad. I made Nutmeg Meltaways, sugar cookies, and molasses cookies. Yummy. I gave them all away this morning though so I'm going to make more when I get home.

My liquor cabinet is fully reloaded for the holidays. It pays to be in project management in the construction industry at Christmas time. I'm forever walking into my office and finding wrapped up bottles of wine, vodka, and whiskey on my desk. I also got a box of chocolates this morning from the head office. I'm not a big chocolate fan but they'll be handy for setting out when I'm entertaining.

Here's a silly little thing. They don't sell tinsel over here. You know - the shiny silver stuff that comes in little strands that you drape on the tree. Not every one uses it but I like a little add glitter. My awesome mother went out when I mentioned it and bought a whole package to stuff in an envelope and send to me. It arrived the day before yesterday so I took it out and put it on the tree last night. SO much better. All pretty and glittery. Much more like home. Plus I did everything in red and silver this year so it adds to the silver effect.

Oh! Good day sunshine!!! It's been sunny for almost a whole week here! I hope I didn't just jinx it but it's so awesome that I have to share. Cold, but sunny. Just how I like my winters. This morning was really pretty (although a bit slick) with all of the trees and grass covered with a think frost. It looked a bit like freshly fallen snow! Better than nothing, I suppose.

Ok - I have to head out. I'm going to lunch with the guys and then I'm off to do last minute errands. I'm hoping to make it up to Arklow tonight to meet up with the ladies. 9pm at Kitty's is the plan. Hopefully I'll get a good few posts in over the holidays.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!! ;-)

I am blessed...

No - I'm not getting all religious on you. Just pointing out an odd habit people have over here of blessing you when you get off the phone with you. I don't mind - it just took some getting used to. It's not so much the personal phone calls that threw me off but every once in a while I'll be making a business call and instead of 'goodbye' I'll get a 'God bless' before the person hangs up.

Another common saying instead of 'goodbye' is 'good luck'. I used to think it was strange that people would say ' good luck' and hang up on me. I've gotten fairly well used to it now but it still makes me smile as a funny little thing.

Sometimes it's not so much WHAT people say, as how they say it. People here like to repeat things when they're getting off the phone with you. I know a good handful of people who do this. Instead of 'bye!' you get 'byebyebyebyebyebye... click' or 'goodluckgoodluckgoodluckgoodluck' often repeated so quickly that you're not sure what hit you before the person is gone. It's good for a giggle when I think about it.

So is everyone ready for Christmas? All of the decorations up? All of the presents wrapped and under the tree? I'm fairly well along now. I've got a few last minute things to pick up and my wrapping hasn't even started yet, but that's alright. I've got time. Most of my gifts for shipping have already reached home and that was the part to worry about. I've got until Monday to wrap the rest.

I'm looking forward to opening the gifts my mom sent over. They've been sitting in my house taunting me for a good few weeks now. I think I would have cracked and opened them except that then I wouldn't have them to open Christmas morning and that would just be sad. She already let me open two anyhow. I opened a crystal Mikasa vase when they got here and I opened my Hallmark ornament while I was decorating my tree. A tree is not a Christmas tree without at least a Hallmark ornament or two on it.

My mom has gotten us (my two sisters and I) Hallmark ornaments every year since we were born so that when we grew up and moved away we'd be able to decorate our own tree. It was a sad year when I took those to my own house with my own tree. An end of an era. They ended up back at my parents' house though. I'm storing them there while I'm here. I didn't want to risk something happening to the box if I shipped it or travelled with it.

I'm sitting here now eating my leftover meatloaf, cheesy potato wedges, and corn from last night. Not bad for my first meatloaf since I lived at home. I was cleaning while it was cooking so it's a bit more on the well done side than I'd like but it's pretty good otherwise.

I'm going to get back to work through the rest of lunch. I'm planning to brave Dundrum Shopping Center again tonight and the sooner I can get out of here the better. Wish me luck with the Christmas crowds!! ;-)

Baby, It's Cold Outside

Well, it is. That's also the name of one of my favorite Christmas songs. I think I like Dean Martin and James Taylor's versions best, but I've got the Elton John version as my ringtone now. It plays well on my new V3Razr. It's also a song that gets stuck in my head for hours at a time!

I successfully made it through my company Christmas party without getting belligerent or doing anything foolish. Yes, I know. What fun is that? Plenty, considering I've only worked with them for about 6 months. The party was good fun and I was able to do some internal networking, which is always handy. It's also fun to see a different side of people when they're out having a few drinks and enjoying the craic.

The way they do Christmas parties here is a bit different. Every Christmas party I ever went to at home was held in the company's own little (or big) reserved banquet room. Here you call and reserve for a certain number of people and they reserve your table for you in the big ballroom. There could be 20 different companies all at the same party (as there were at ours) and then they serve dinner and hire a band and everyone kind of mingles. Strange, but it seems to work well and it keeps the cost of the party down. Our company was pretty good about the drinks too. They had wine available at the tables and they paid for a good few rounds during and after dinner. It's not really a situation that lends itself well to open bars because you'd never be able to track who was with which company without bracelets or tickets. Anyhow - it's a different way of doing it, but it was still good fun.

Last night was the Arklow rugby 'Christmas Party'. I use the term loosely though because other than Santa showing up to hand out sweets, it was pretty much the same guys drinking in the same clubhouse and going to the same bar the same way they do every Sunday. It was a decent time, even without drinking (I knew I'd regret it today and I've got too much to do this week to start it out hungover). I met a few new people, discovered a new spa in the area (I like trying them all out) and had at least two of the players proclaim their undying love for me. Must have been the hat I was wearing. It seemed to go over fairly well.

Speaking of spas... I realized as I was changing out of my work boots on Friday that my feet were in now sort of shape to be wearing dress sandals on Saturday so I called and made an emergency appointment for a pedicure. And manicure. And massage. And dry float. What can I say? I had a posh weekend. I couldn't help myself. There was a new spa at the new hotel near my house and I've been dying to check it out. It's really nice!!

So the whole 'dry float' thing was a little different, but nice. It's kind of like getting wrapped up in a lovely soft, heated water bed. They give you a scalp massage and have twinkling start lights in the ceiling. It puts you to sleep pretty effectively. The benefit of the dry float is that a half hour of sleep in it is supposed to be equivalent the 3 hours of deep sleep. Something to do with there not being any pressure on any of your body parts. I'm not sure if that's the case, but I was mighty refreshed after the whole thing. I was also advised by the massage therapist that I 'have a lot of tension in (my) shoulders. A LOT'. No shit, Sherlock. That's why I made the appointment. Only kidding there. She was really nice. I just like that phrase!

So that was my weekend. Did a little shopping in between things. Met a really nice and helpful man at the sports shop. His name is John and I think he must be about 100 years old but he's SO sweet and really knows his stuff. If only I were 60 years older or he were 60 years younger... ;-)

Filters Suck

I was all about posting yesterday but something on the sign-in site must have contained sexual content because the firewall/crazy filter here blocked the sign-in page on me. Luckily, it was only a temporary thing and I'm back on today. Yeah for Friday!!

A rainy Friday at that. I seriously have never seen so much rain in my life. On Tuesday they text everyone to cancel the game on Sunday because the pitch is so waterlogged there's no way it will dry up by then. Madness. Training on Wednesday was a flop. Only 6 of us showed up so we stood around talking about how to get people there and the GAA unofficial Christmas party that's happening tonight at Deidre's house.

Speaking of GAA - I finally uploaded some of the pics from the crazy karaoke night for your viewing pleasure:

Naomi, Bracken, Jan and Me

The Ladies Dancing to Karaoke

Sing it, girls!!

A pretty fun night, overall. The cowboy hat was a gift from a very drunken gentleman at the end of the bar who placed it on my head as I was walking to the ladies room. Perhaps he was inspired by the Noush/Rachael rendition of Devil Went Down to Georgia performed on karaoke. Noush being from Atlanta (and wearing red in the photos above).

I'm looking forward to seeing what tonight brings. Unfortunately the party is in Arklow so I may be sober and driving. Regardless, being sober has never stopped me from having a good time so we'll see how things go.

I've got loads to get done today so I'll catch you again on Monday. Have a nice weekend! Only 10 days left until Christmas - get your shopping done! ;-)

Lost but not forgotten...

That's my mind (lost) and you (not forgotten). Sorry for the lack of posting - it's been crazy here the last few days. We're still in the Christmas Crunch here at work and I was trying to get some other 'very important' stuff done last night, which I'll get to in a minute. I think I've somehow worked through the madness of this place and have accomplished the seemingly impossible task of completing all of my projects here on-time and on-budget (well, under budget but the construction engineer for the owner told us to keep the savings because we'll be putting it towards extras over the next few weeks). So 1.5 weeks and counting until the Christmas holiday and the stress of getting these done in time is over.

So back to my 'very important' thing that I needed to be doing yesterday. I really only left 2 hours early, but it saved about 3 hours of sitting in traffic and allowed us to see Happy Feet so it was well worth skipping lunch for. By 'us' I mean Aine and Shauna - my two little 9 and 10 year old (respectively) friends. We had a serious date to go to the mall and do some bear building.

I picked the little ladies up from school and drove the hour to Dundrum as they did their homework in the back seat. We hit a minor snag with 8x7=?? and the meaning of the word 'succeed' but I worked them through it and it was a very prductive car ride, as all homework was done and shopping could begin upon arrival. Well, as soon as we got something to eat anyhow!

So off we headed to the 'restaurant' section since the girls were 'starving'. It's not a food court. It's really all restaurants. It's where you find TGI Friday's and Bennigan's 'American Grill'. That cracked me up since it's an 'Irish Grill' at home, but whatever works. So we went to Bennigan's since the kiddie menu there looked yummy. It was pretty good. The American Grill even came with an American waitress (from Arizona). I had wings and a quesadilla for dinner. I figure I'll claim the 'veggie' quesadilla as qualifying it for a healthy dinner... Cute aren't they? Picture was from my phone, so sorry about the quality. I'll try to take the better one off my camera later tonight.

After dinner we headed up to the Build-A-Bear shop. If you haven't been to one, seriously stop in next time you go by. They really are adorable and make great gifts for kids of all ages (27 year olds included). After much a-do about escalators and glass elevators we finally made it up 3 floors to the store, where they took off at full sprint once it was in site. After quite a bit of back and forth Aine picked out her Monkey (Monk Monk) and Shauna got her Froggy (Lou Lou). We were running late by then and they were excited when I surprised them with the idea of going to see Happy Feet so we purchased the animals with promises of coming back to register and dress them.

Happy Feet was really good. I'm a fan of animated cartoons anyhow, but it was one of those with adult jokes in it, like Ice Age and Shrek. Not that I've seen the first Ice Age, but so I've been told. I recommend seeing it and if you'd like a date let me know because I'd go and see it again. I was so in love with penguins by the end of it that I would have gotten Mumbles at Build A Bear but the Irish shop didn't have it. :-(

So back to the shop for another 45 minutes of registering and printing birth certificates and clothes shopping. Lou Lou got a cute winter outfit of jeans and a t-shirt with embroidered penguins along with a pair of sandals. Monk Monk came home in jeans with a skater chain and a leather jacket. Too cute. I finally dragged them out once the gate started closing on the store. It was a great math lesson as they stood there adding and subtracting, trying to figure out what they could buy with their allowance money. Movies and dinner were on me, but the moms insisted they buy their own Build A Bear stuff.

It was a really fun night overall and the girls seemed to have a really good time. I told them we could do it again sometime and I'm actually looking forward to it. Now, if only all of my dates could go that well... ;-)

Doh!

That was my reaction when I saw the next movie screenclick.com was sending my way. Ice Age 2. That would be grand expect that I haven't seen the first one yet. Oh, well. I suppose it won't make too much difference. I'm reverting to cartoon movies and toys to help try and get into the holiday spirit but I haven't been very successful so far.

My soccer match on Sunday has already been cancelled. The field is waterlogged. It figures that even when it's NOT raining the rain still puts a damper on things (no pun intended). I don't suppose the game would have happened anyhow because the forecast is calling for heavy rain to cause flooding on Sunday. Another lovely Irish winter day.

I don't really have much else planned for the weekend. I could stand to clean the house. It's been a couple of weeks since the bathrooms got a good scrubbing and the laundry could use some catching up on. There's a 21st birthday party tonight, but it's up in Arklow and I'm not really much in the mood to head up there for the night. I'd rather sleep snugly in my own bed and sleep in as long as I want in the morning. Maybe catch up on some of the shows my mom tapes for me.

One thing I have to do this weekend is head to the post office. I've got to get Christmas presents sent home before it's too late! My cards have to go out as well. I'm going to try a few more post offices if I have to to find the Air Mail Holiday stamps. For one, I'm curious. Secondly, Christmas just won't be the same without holiday stamps. Yes, my friends, it's the little things.

I'm off to finish up some work and take a walk down on site while the sun is shining. I think we might make it through the first day in weeks without rain today. It's a lovely brisk and sunny day (although I may have spoken too soon because when I looked out the window I noticed some dark clouds....).

Have a great weekend and see you next week!! ;-)

Christmas Crunch

I don't know if I've mentioned it, but everything here closes down on the 22nd of this month and doesn't re-open until the 3rd of January. This causes a phenomenon I like to call the 'Christmas Crunch'. It makes life at work a bit crazy in the world of construction.

Basically, everybody wants everything done 'by Christmas'. That leaves me with 12.5 working days to wrap up everything I've got going on 3 projects that were already tightly scheduled (NOT including when things happen like subcontractors staying home because they're hungover or showing up with wrong materials, or the entire site disappearing for 2 days to attend a a funeral) PLUS all of the last minute things people are throwing at me as they find them. The reason for the rush? If it's not done before Christmas, it's not done on this year's budget and it will have to come out of next year's.

I know. Most of you are hearing 'blah blah blah construction blah blah blah'. I'm hearing the constant ring of the telephone and my fingers hurt from dialling the phone to make sure people are going to be here when they're supposed to be and that materials are ordered and on time. So why am I blogging now instead of calling people? I needed a bit of 'cool off' time to get my brain back in relaxed mode so I don't fly off the handle at somebody. I have managed 5 years in the construction business without yelling or screaming and I don't plan on starting while I'm working in one of the most relaxed cultures in the world.

It's working. I'm slowing chilling out and feeling ready to make more plans and call more people. Lucky for me I'm only an hour from the end of the day so I can leave it all here and start up again tomorrow!!

Any other notes? Let's see. I watched 'The March of the Penguins' the other night. It came by screenclick.com, which is Ireland's answer to Netflix. It wasn't my first choice (I don't even know that it was in my top 5) but it was really good. It made me want to run out and hug a penguin. Did you know the Emperor Penguin gets to be over a meter tall? That's about 3 1/2 feet. They're so darn cute!! It makes me SO want to see Happy Feet. It's not really playing here yet. Let me know if you've seen it and it's any good.

Okay - time to get back to work. I'm re-motivated to get stuff done before I leave now. Is it time for Christmas vacation? I feel like I'm back in school waiting for winter break! ;-)

Blah

Blah is how I'm feeling today. I'm not feeling well, but it's an 'in between' sort of sick. I'm not bad enough to stay home but I'm just bad enough to make coming to work a long and painful experience. I don't suppose it has anything to do with standing out in the pelting rain and wind for 2 hours yesterday. And by 'pelting' I mean 60mph winds whipping little raindrop bullets at you. It was crazy!

I was out in the wind and rain was because our last Gaelic game of the season was yesterday and this season has dragged on and on and on for the ladies, who had started training in February. That's a REALLY long season. They usually finish up in September, but the weather caused a few cancellations and scheduling with the other team was a bit of a nightmare. It's done now. We lost by about 4 points. Nobody wanted the loss, but it was a relief knowing we wouldn't have to be out in that weather again.

I did some shopping this weekend and got to eat out at TGI Fridays. It's pretty much the same as eating at home but the menu is slightly different. They didn't have a few of the newer items on the menu (like the meat Fundido, which I was REALLY hoping they would have) but everything they did have was pretty good. As luck would have it they were passing out free drink coupons with the purchase of a meal as we were walking through the mall AFTER we ate. Guess I'll just have to go back before they expire, eh?

Other than the game and TGI Fridays it was a pretty uneventful weekend. Training on Friday night was fine and I went road running for the first time in a while on Saturday, which was good. It's too dark to run outside before OR after work so I'll have to stick to the weekends. I may find a gym to join though now that Gaelic is finished up. Especially with the holiday season sneaking up so quickly.

Time to get back to work. I'm going to try to get a good handful of stuff done and attempt to get out of here a little early so I can curl up in front of the fire with some chicken noodle soup and hope I feel better tomorrow. If I'm feeling better, maybe I'll even write my letter to Santa Clause so he knows just what to put in my stocking this year! ;-)

Can I get giant nightlight over here?

As if the rain and wind weren’t enough in the wintertime here, the darkness is becoming a bit depressing as well. Only 22 days left until the shortest day of the year but it’s already dark for 2/3 of the day. The sun come up at about 8am, as I’m getting to work and is set around 4pm, before I even think about leaving. At least I’m used to driving in the dark now. The first few times I drove in the dark over here were a little weird because it stays light until about 11pm in the summer, so you don’t get much opportunity for ‘night driving’.

Let’s see – what’s been going on this week? I got more Christmas presents in the mail! My mom has sent 2 boxes over so far, with multiple presents in each. She must feel bad about me not being home for the holidays. It’s just not the same when I know I’m not going to be waking up at my parents’ house with everyone on Christmas morning, you know?

Anyone who has been to my place at Christmas time knows that I have accumulated quite the collection of Christmas decorations, dishes, towels, etc… I miss having all of those to decorate with over here. I’d normally have most of them up by now and I’d be planning my trip to pick out a tree sometime this week/weekend. They aren’t even selling trees here yet. I don’t own any decorations here either, and it’s kind of silly to go spending all of that money on things when I don’t know how long I’m staying or if I’ll get to use them again.

I did get myself a little nativity. It was really inexpensive and the baby Jesus comes out of it. That’s important because in my house baby Jesus doesn’t show up in the manger until Christmas Eve/Christmas Day. I figure I’ll set it on my mantle above the fireplace. I really miss having my Hallmark ornaments here. I didn’t want to risk shipping them or travelling with them because it would break my heart if they were damaged. I’ve gotten one every year since I was born so there’s quite a collection sitting in a box at home. Maybe my mom will take them out and hang them on her tree so they won’t be neglected this year.

On a brighter note, my boss stopped up the other day and seemed pretty pleased with things. I work on-site and so I’m not in the office and don’t report to my boss on a daily basis. I kind of AM the boss, but it doesn’t feel as empowering as I always though it would. Anyhow, I guess my boss ran into the architect/engineer who works here at a dinner last week. The architect was complimenting my organization and communication skills and saying that he was really surprised somebody could get the muddle of projects up here sorted and running smoothly. That made me smile for the better part of the day!

I also ordered a new phone yesterday that I’m waiting to show up in the mail. It’s the Motorola V3 Razr in black. There’s a fairly limited number of phones available with the prepay service I use, but that one seems pretty handy. I’ve always loved my flip-phones so I wanted to stick with that style even though they don’t seem to be as popular over here (and they call them ‘clam shell’ phones). The buttons and ringer on the super cheapo one I got when I moved here are starting to go. I can’t have that because I use it to text a lot and I also use it as an alarm. If the alarm goes I miss work and that wouldn’t be cool…

This weekend is looking like a good deal of Christmas shopping is in my future. I’ve actually got most of my shopping done, but I want to pick up one or two more things and I need a new dress for my company Christmas party. Well, maybe I don’t need one – but I’d like one. I’ve got a 40th birthday party coming up as well, so it will get good use.

Back to work for me. These lunch breaks seem to get shorter and shorter… ;-)

Santa and SingStar

As for other non-Thanksgiving items, the weekend was a still a busy one. I did a bunch of my cleaning for the dinner and then headed into town to pick Baz up from having a 'pint or two' after work with his brother Anthony. I got to the pub just in time for them to get into a bit of a spat about work and who's better at what and other things you normally hear coming from little children. I was sitting between them at the corner of the bar and it was a bit like watching a tennis game - back and forth, back and forth. As the childish banter got louder I felt like I was transported back in time to what life must have been like for their mother when they were about 10 and 12. Except now they are not 'little' boys by any means and standing well over 6 foot each with not-so-small frames. I had to stop my amusement and extinguish the flame before they started wrestling around the bar and broke something (or someone).

My Saturday was spent cleaning, grocery shopping and baking and doing other various pre-Thanksgiving prep like picking up extra chairs and tables and plates. I also went to check out the Christmas section at Arklow Building Supply to see what they've got for decorations. Santa was there! This may sounds insanely childish, at first but really there was good reason to be excited. Every year since I was born my mom has dragged me to go get my photo done with Santa. First it was me, then it was with Anne, and then the three of us. Every year. If you don't go, you don't get presents.

So I was excited when I found out he was there because it's not like home where you go and stand in line and Santa's in the middle of the mall for all to see. Here, Santa hides out in a little tent and you have to pay €7 to go see him. This doesn't include a photo or anything so it's a good thing mine is surgically attached to me (not really but all of you who know me know what I mean). Anyhow - I don't think Santa minded, as he seemed pretty eager to have me come sit on his lap, and the little elf lady thought it was sweet and took the photo for me. I think I also restored faith in a few small children who must have thought that if an adult like me was going to see Santa he must be real.

That was one of the highlights of my weekend though because even though the three of us aren't in the photo, I should be able to digitally alter it with pics from Anne and Shaine and make it look decent. Plus, my mom will be SO psyched I didn't miss a year just because I was out of the country. It's the first Santa I've met with a brogue. I wonder how little Irish kids feel when they watch The Night Before Christmas and Santa has an American accent? He did give me a cute little stuffed bear to unwrap though.

I ended up going out with the ladies from the Gaelic team Saturday night. My first girls night out over here. It was really a fun time. Noush brought her (other) drinking Jenga game, which nobody else had ever played before and that was good for laughs. Then the SingStar playstation karaoke came out. Wow, was I laughing. I don't know as many real words to Ice, Ice Baby as I though. Our captain hosted the little party and is banned from pouring/making/fixing/giving drinks anymore. She was handing out shots and mixing up liquor cocktails like it was our last night of drinking. Ever.

We eventually made it down to Kitty's for more karaoke (where I found out they're having a 'fancy dress' aka costume party in two weeks!) and Noush and I did a fantastic rendition of Devil Went Down to Georgia (she's from Atlanta) with do-see-does and all. Really fun time and I made it to bed at a decent hour to get up and cook, although I was completely EXHAUSTED all day.

I told you the weekend was busy! It was great to get all of the girls out. Now if I can only get them to all dress up for that fancy dress party... ;-)

Thanksgiving Dinner - Irish Style

I've never cooked Thanksgiving Dinner by myself. What made me think that cooking it for 22 people would be a good idea??? Why didn't anybody slap me to try to knock some sense into me? Doing it on a Sunday (yesterday) also left me with no time to recoup. Back to work today!

Actually, the whole thing went over pretty well. Everyone got to try a few dishes that were new to them and I won't have to cook for another week with all of the leftovers. I'm still not entirely sure how I fit that much food into my tony Irish-sized fridge. It was fairly classic Thanksgiving dinner. I had appetizers out to munch on when people got there:

- Celery stuffed with cream cheese and Spanish olives
- Cheese platter
- Veggie platter
- Devilled eggs

And then there was the main course:

- Turkey
- Stuffing
- Mashed potatoes
- Gravy
- Sweet potatoes
- Butternut squash
- Carrots
- Broccoli
- Cranberry sauce
- Jello Salad
- Coleslaw
- Dinner rolls

Last but not least - DESSERT!!

- Pumpkin pie
- Apple pie
- Rasberry cheesecake
- Chocolate cake
- Pastry Tower

I think that was it. I like throwing in a few new foods to see how they'll go over. This meal it was the butternut squash (actually labelled an 'exotic vegetable' in one store) which I baked with butter, maple syrup, and nutmeg. The jello salad was new (which most of you wouldn't have had either) and they thought it was SO funny that I served something so sweet WITH the meal. Pumpkin pie was a novelty as well. I actually managed to make it from scratch and not ruin it. This was very important because pumpkins aren't as easy to get over here so I actually brought the canned pumpkin back with me from my trip home.

They fell into the tradition pretty easily too. The guys spent the afternoon watching sports on TV (although it was rugby instead of American Football) and all collapsed on the couch, half passed out afterwards. As much help as I got cleaning up last night, you can only clean up so much when you have that many people in your house so there's a decent amount of cleaning waiting to be done once I get home tonight.

All in all, a good meal and good times. ;-)

Here I sit...

...at work, eating my leftover spaghetti and meatballs at 'dinner time' on Thanksgiving. :-( Where's the TURKEY????

My normal Thanksgiving traditions are all out the window this year. I didn't go to the pub last night to meet up with all of my high school friends like I normally do. Granted, every year we sit there and think about how we don't really want to go but what if we miss something (like the prom queen shows up and she's pregnant with triplets and has developed an acute case of adult acne) and then you go and wonder why you ever bothered going in the first place and swear you won't next year (like you swore LAST year).

I was usually pretty good about not drinking much on those nights anyhow because I would inevitably have to get up early the next morning to run the Turkey Trot (okay - so I only ran the 5k, which was more or less considered the 'chicken trot' by the 10k runners) and having a hangover SUCKED. I've lost track of when it all started but I know that this will only be the 3rd one since then that I've missed. The 1st I missed because I was in England for Thanksgiving (that was the year Linda Dayton cooked us a 'make-up Thanksgiving' meal when we all got home) and the other year was when I broke my leg and had my cast removed the day before Thanksgiving. I still went that year - I hobbled around without crutches which was probably more work and more painful than most years running the damn thing!

Next would be the Thanksgiving nap - which my mom would always allow if we ran, even if it meant waiting a bit longer for us to help in the kitchen. Those were always the best naps! Followed by stuffing myself stupid with dinner and falling asleep on the couch with my cousin Alexandra. We usually rent a movie to watch as well, because you can only watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade so many times. I guess I'll just have to wait until Sunday for this year's turkey.

In the meantime, I've got a couple of pics from Blarney last weekend. For those of you who haven't been (most of you, I'm guessing) you'll see that you have to lean upside down and backwards to kiss the thing. The two yellow bars you can see in the pic to the right are all that are keeping me from plummeting to the bottom of a 4 story drop. The weird part was that it didn't even phase me. I think construction may have cured my mild fear of heights. The guy that holds you is really nice and even managed to convince the girl ahead of me that she shouldn't be scared and that he really hasn't ever dropped anybody - she eventually got down and kissed the stone.

Thanks to the winter weather in Ireland, the tourist traffic was pretty low. There was no line to kiss the stone (only the scared girl in front of us) and we could climb all over the place to explore and take photos. The castle is in pretty good shape so you can walk around in what was the kitchen, old bedrooms, entrance hall, etc... The photo at the left is from the top of the castle. It's the watchtower and castle grounds. Very pretty - even in winter. Mother Nature was kind and granted a mild day full of sunshine for my first visit to Blarney. It's another one of my favorite places so far.

I think I've rambled on long enough and should probably get back to work. It's like my brain knows it shouldn't be working full tilt today! I hope everyone back home has a very Happy Thanksgiving!! Eat some turkey and have a few drinks for me! ;-)

Who likes taking photos?

I DO!!! I FINALLY got my pics from the Halloween party burned to a CD to share with you. I have to say my night started off on a creepy note. I was cooking and heard a knock at the french doors and when I pulled the curtain back I found these two staring me in the face on the other side of the glass:

Yeah - just plain creepy. I think one of my favorite costumes was my friend Noush's boyfriend. He dressed up like Borat and looked great, but he also had a great accent to go with it. Unfortunately, I can't post the accent here so a pic of the two of us will have to do:

I was impressed that everyone dressed up. Baz was certain I'd never get people to do it but we had everything from Cowboys & Indians to cats, Vikings, and baseball players:

It was a fun time and I'm on a photo roll, so expect some from Blarney tomorrow.

I'm back to what seems like a normal training schedule. My Gaelic team lost the league semi-finals but we've still got one game left so back to training Tuesday and Thursdays, with soccer on Wednesdays. Ahh... should keep me fit even if it doesn't leave me with much time.

I stopped into the new spa at the new hotel the other night. They gave me the grand tour and I can tell you that I can't WAIT to book an appointment. I'm waiting to get the price menu in the mail before I do anything too crazy. Maybe I'll treat myself to something simple like a manicure or eyebrow wax this weekend. They can't charge anything too crazy for either of those. Besides, I'm cooking Thanksgiving dinner for 20-something people on Sunday so I'll probably need a break from prepping on Saturday.

Speaking of dinner - I stopped at the grocery store after training last night to pick up some food, since there is NONE in the house, and found sweet potatoes and cranberry sauce. I was so excited. I'd been looking and I think maybe they're starting to stock the cranberry sauce for Christmas dinner - I bought 3 small jars of it. I wasn't sure what to expect but I decided to try my luck since I haven't been able to find the sauce or fresh cranberries to make it. I opened a jar when I got home and it was perfect. A sort of mix between the jelly-like stuff you get in a can and the fresh stuff you'd make at home. One questionable ingredient down, only a few more to go.

I think that if customs had stopped me on the way home they would have brought me in for questioning based on the insane contents of my bags: cans of pumpkin, cherry pie filling, and pumpkin bread mix, to name a few. I can't get those things over here and they HAD to be part of my Thanksgiving dinner so they came back in my suitcase. Can't have Thanksgiving without pumpkin pie!!

I have to say that I'm jealous of all of you who have a half day today and the rest of the week off, but who will be laughing at Christmas time when I get a full week and a half off? Or Easter when I get to relapse into the days of 'spring break'? Especially with Crystal and Kara coming! Watch out 'Girls Gone Wild' - you've got nothing on us!

I also received my first package of Christmas presents, which reminded me that I have to get my ass in gear and wrap and send some so they get to the States in time. It's nice to get presents but it's sad to realize I won't be opening them with my family like I have for the other 27 Christmas Days. :-(

I've also got to get my Christmas cards done, so any of you who have moved in the last year or so or would like to receive a Christmas card from me (I like sending them and don't expect them back - so don't worry about that) - send me the new address. Most of you will be getting an e-mail about it shortly anyhow... 33 days 'til Christmas! ;-)

Started My Monday with a Giggle

My friend Kara made me start my Monday with a giggle when she referenced this site on the death of VHS. What made me giggle was her point that both she and VHS are 30 and VHS is dead. Well, dead to the commercial world, I suppose. I still haven't upgraded my parents to a DVR and therefore all of my favorite shows are recorded on VHS and sent to me via snail-mail. Yes, I know. Very stone age. It works for me though. I'm allowed to spend several hours of my week wasting away catching up on episodes of Bones, House, The O.C., and Prison Break. Seriously - I don't remember any of my fellow Civil students ever looking like that.

I went to Blarney for the weekend and kissed the Blarney Stone. You have to hang upside down to reach it and this guy holds on to you to make sure you don't plummet down the side of the castle and land on other tourists below. I've obviously been working construction heights for a while because the idea of falling between the wall and the stone and plummeting to my death never really occurred to me. Five years ago (before I had to hang off the edge of buildings to plumb steel at work) I probably would have freaked out about it. Yeah for me overcoming a fear of heights. :-)

I love that my sister Anne is such a night owl. We're 8 hours apart now with her living out in California. Anne's always been one for staying up all night and sleeping all day. She'll try to blame it on her night shifts at Denny's but she was like that well before she ever put on a good ol' Denny's uniform. So I wasn't incredibly surprised to get an e-mail from her at noon here. Yep - 3:30am on a Monday where she is. Leave it to Anne. It was good to hear from her anyways and get to chat back and forth a bit.

I should be posting Halloween pics tomorrow. Something is wrong with the CD I have them on and it won't read properly. I'll use a new CD and see if I can't get them up. It's going to be Christmas by the time I get these silly pics up. Better late than never I suppose.

I'm planning my Thanksgiving menu for this coming Sunday if anyone has any good ideas for things to serve. I know Thursday is traditionally on Thursday but that's one of the few days this year I DON'T have off so I'm going to have to improvise. Any help would be appreciated. ;-)

Got 'Em

Got my tickets to the Dave Matthews show. I didn't think it would be hard to get tickets, but I had to settle for getting just 2 tickets at 9:05am when tickets went on sale at 9:00am. By 9:30am you couldn't even get a single ticket. That's crazy. The seats are in the upper balcony, but since the place only seats a couple of thousand (it's mostly used for boxing, I've been told) they should still be pretty good.

I have in my possession a bottle of Poitin (aka Potcheen, Poteen, etc...) for the first time ever. What exactly is that, you may ask? It's an Irish Moonshine. The bottle I've got is only 70% alcohol. Yes - 'ONLY' 70% because they do make it 100% strong. It's not advised you drink it when it's that strong though. It's been said it will burn the hair off you when it's that strong, so I can't imagine what it would do to your insides. The guy who makes the one I've got actually won't sell it to anyone unless he's sure they're only using it for rubbing on the muscles of horses and greyhounds. It's THAT strong. Apparently it works to relieve pain in sore muscles.

From what I've been told, it drinks a bit like vodka - you mix it with juices or lemon-lime soda for the best mixers. It's also good for spiking punch at parties, as a few very funny stories have shown. It's a bit of a miracle cure according to some people. As I was handed the bottle I was told to keep a bit in my medicine cabinet and when somebody comes down with the flu you can put a bit in a glass, add a bit of hot water, dissolve a teaspoon or two of honey in it and sip away. One cup of that before bedtime and a person will wake up feeling newly reborn! Probably a bit of an old wife's tale, but it seems to work for people around here.

It's slightly sunny out today but quite cold for Ireland. It's not supposed to get out of the 30's today and they've got warnings out that the roads might get a bit icy this evening and tonight. I don't think it's that cold, but having gone to CU that's not so surprising. My hair used to turn into icicles on the way to class if I didn't have time to blow dry. Seriously. I'm not too worried though. Even if it DID get that cold out I'm pretty sure one good sip of Poitin would have me feeling all sorts of fuzzy and warm! ;-)

I would still marry him...

I can't believe I forgot to mention Dave!! I know, sounds like a good friend, but really I've never met him. Although in some ways, I guess he could be considered a good friend. He's been through lots of things with me - the good, the bad, the ugly, the fantastic... love, hate... college. I remember sitting with my friends Sara and Nicole and professing our undying love for the man in our dorm up at CU. Who wouldn't love a man with talent like that? Dave Matthews is amazing.

Anyhow - the reason I mention Dave is that he's coming to DUBLIN! How cool is that? My friend Abby sent me the info on the concert or I never would have known about it. I haven't heard a word of it over here and not many people know who he is so I'm hoping it won't be hard to get decent seats. Tickets go onsale tomorrow morning at 9am, so I should know by the time I blog again. Great seats would be a fantastic way to start off the weekend.

I love just chilling out and listening to Dave. There are seriously about a million and one memories that belong with his music. His concerts (and the pre and post activity) were always an adventure at SPAC. I've seen him in Canada too, so this will be country #3. That's kind of fun, now that I think of it. The concert is just him on tour so it should be different for me and I'm still expecting it to be cool. It's Feb 26th if anyone wants to come with me!!! ;-)

The color may be penetrating...

I think the blonde highlights are getting to me. I sat down last night and took all of the photos off my camera so I could post some new pics on here. I looked on the disc I burnt them to when I got in and somehow managed to burn all OLD photos on and none of the new. So tomorrow's the day I guess. Oh, well.

I love that my friends and family are good enough to tape my favorite shows at home and send them over to me on VHS. I especially love that my former roommate Kelly DVR's them and when she taped them she left out the commercials and everything! It was sweet. I sat through 3 episodes of Prison Break the other night, two the next night, and one episode of Bones last night. They're all in order and she didn't miss a single one before her VCR blew out.

I was looking online and they have this really cool thing called a Slingbox which allows anyone with a TV and broadband to 'sling' anything they can watch on their TV to anywhere in the world that has a computer and broadband. Unfortunately, I don't qualify because Eircom (the phone company) is slow to get broadband upgraded and we don't get it as far out as we live. It would be great to see some of the new shows people talk about and watch the local news on occasion. Kind of like being at home in my own living room. I even watch the commercials on the tapes my mom sends over sometimes just so I can catch up on news bulletins and the latest products. It's terrible!

I've finally got training tonight. It's going to be cold, but it should be dry. I don't think it's supposed to get out of the 30's here tomorrow. Brrr.... That's cold for Ireland. I never made it to the gym last night. It took me over an hour to get home, which is about twice as long as usual, between the rain and wind and slow traffic. You know it's bad when the Irish radio announcer actually uses the word 'brutal' to describe the weather. Is it summer yet? ;-)

Great Weather

For ducks. Yet again thankful that I work on top of a hill. :-) One of these days our trailer/office is just going to float down it like a white water river raft. I can feel it.

The photo above arrived in my inbox while I was at home on vacation. I just saw it again today and decided to post it because it makes me smile every time I see it. If it didn't make you smile, take a look again and concentrate on the left side of the frog pond. That's little Cadence Ann and she's just as cute as her mommy, Jess! I figured after the pretty depressing posts I've had, I'd add something kind of cheery. But the cuteness doesn't stop there.

My friend Crystal also sent pics of her little ones over. These two are Emma and Ben. Emma's a big fan of Shrek (that's her watch over-and-over-and-over again movie). Lucky for Crystal and Jamie there's a Shrek 2 - at least now they only have to watch each one half as much. I remember watching Babes in Toyland about a million times when my sister Shaine was little. And there was Beauty and the Beast. I know every line of that movie. Thanks, Shaine. Sorry to load up on the baby pics but they make me smile and smiling I am.

There doing an 'Emergency Response Joint Exercise' here today. Kind of like when they do a 'test of the Emergency Broadcast System' but instead of closing down your favorite radio program, they're closing down all of the roads in the area and re-evaluating evacuation routes and other emergency items. That's supposed to be happening from 4-5pm this afternoon. I say 'supposed to' because everything in Ireland runs a little slowly and since I'm supposed to leave at 5.15pm I just know it will run late. Nobody is allowed on or off site during the exercise.

Safety is pretty big here. I work at a pharmaceutical place with loads of chemicals, corrosives, and explosives. Sounds safe, eh? Everyone here has to wear safety glasses at all times, unless they are in a designated office space. That includes everywhere from production areas to sidewalks. Can't walk between buildings without your glasses. It's crazy but the norm here.

It's a pretty big campus. It's a good 10 minute walk downhill from my office to the front gate. Any time a smoke alarm or heat sensor goes off this ear piercing alarm goes off and the whole campus has to evacuate. Hundreds of people out the front gate and to their designated meeting points along the sidewalk to do a roll call. If you've been paying any attention to my weather bits on this blog, that's something you especially want to avoid this time of year. We've done 2 this week. Luckily the one last night was at 5:15 so we just went home. Let's hope there isn't another one today!

I'm thinking of hitting the gym tonight. I haven't been in a while but I figure 3 nights of training and 2 matches a week is doing pretty well. Things have been cancelled left and right (including training tonight) so I thought I'd check out the new gym in Courtown. They've got a cool pool area with a lap pool, kids' play area, big twisty slide, sauna, steam room, and hot tub. I've been to the pool but the gym was being renovated and was supposed to re-open at the end of last month. All new equipment would be nice to check out. It's a summer resort and pretty quiet in the winter so it shouldn't be crowded. I'm looking forward to a good workout anyhow. Hopefully they'll have TV's so I don't get too bored staring at the wall. Wish me luck getting there! ;-)

This is getting rediculous...

Not to mention incredibly sad. I'm sorry to say I'm going to start my blog off on a sad note again but I want people reading to realize what a big problem this is over here. The fact that I've had two posts in less than a week regarding suicide is a bit alarming to even myself. The latest was a 15 year old boy on Saturday who apparently had a fight with a family member and decided that ending his life was the best way to deal with it. His sister plays Gaelic Football with me, which is why the match was cancelled on Sunday. I found out shortly after my post yesterday.

They're holding the funeral today and I would normally be going with the rest of my team (who went as a group wearing their GAA jackets) but we already lost half of our small work crew to the funeral and somebody has to stay on site. I don't mind as I had never met him and the guys missing were all school mates and neighbors. I'm just so sad for the family.

It's weird because although you hear general radio announcements when they're trying to raise money for the crisis hotline, you don't see much else about it. As an American friend of mine pointed out - why aren't they papering the town with crisis hotline numbers? Why aren't they holding forums to discuss what might be happening? Where are the public speakers to address the kids at school and discuss what's going on with them?

I can only imagine that if something like 2 suicides in one week happened in my home town, there would be psychologists and counselors running rampant in the schools and board meetings and PTA meetings and every other kind of meeting going on trying to prevent the next one from happening. From what I can tell from listening to people talk and listening to news radio in the evenings, it's a topic people don't like to discuss - it's 'swept under the rug' like a lot of issues here. Suicide, sex-ed, child abuse, underage smoking/drugs... Maybe if we ignore it, it will go away? Don't get me wrong. They're making progress, but having come from someplace where we finally have so many of those issues out in the open and where real progress is being made to deal with things like that, it's tough to watch.

On a less dreary note, I've planned a completely touristy trip for this weekend. Blarney. Yep - Home of the Stone of Eloquence, better known as the Blarney Stone. Will I kiss it? I'd like to say no because the idea is kind of gross, but everyone I've ever known who says no (even my sister Shaine) ends up going and kissing the damn thing anyhow. So yes, I will probably kiss the stone that millions of people have gone and kissed. Did you know they hang you upside down to do it? There's a guy who holds on to you as you tip back and kiss it. Blogger is being a major pain in the toukas today and won't let me upload the pic of my mom kissing it this summer. Maybe later...

So I'm looking forward to the trip because I promised myself I would do lots of touristy things while I'm here and I've been a bum about it for the most part. I'm just hoping they don't reschedule the Gaelic match for this weekend. Guess I'll have to wait and see. ;-)

To Be or Not to Be...

I guess playing any matches this past weekend was not to be. Gaelic and soccer were both cancelled without much of an explanation on either account, so I guess I'll just have to wait until the next training sessions to find out what happened. It was kind of odd that they cancelled Gaelic though, since it was a semi-final match and had been scheduled for weeks.

I'm not really complaining because I hosted a Halloween party on Saturday night and was feeling anything but 100% yesterday and was not really in the mood the be running around a pitch chasing a ball. My better-late-than-never Halloween party was a pretty big hit. I even had one guest who had NEVER dressed up in 'fancy dress', which is what they call costumes over here. Never dressed up??? I never MISS a chance to dress up (hence the REALLY late Halloween party).

I've had better hostessing nights, in all honesty. I was so busy cooking that I forgot to eat before the party and was only 4 drinks into the evening (granted, they were 4 pretty stiff Captain and Cokes) before I became a bit too drunk for my stomach's own good. I ended up retiring earlier than I would have liked with a not-so-nice feeling in my tummy. Note to self - remember to eat some of the yummy food while cooking instead of munching on the veggie platter. I'll post a pic or two once I get them downloaded off my camera.

I'm very excited about having booked my sister Shaine's plane ticket to come visit. She hasn't been over to see me yet and we didn't get to spend nearly enough time together while I was home, so I'm really looking forward to her coming over for a week around the New Year. The very cool part is that since I'm working in Ireland, I only have to work fro 3 days in the two weeks that Christmas and New Year fall in. Yeah!!!!

It's Monday and it's pretty busy here so I have to cut this post short, but I didn't want to leave it too many days without something new. I apologize for the lack of pics in my posts lately. I'll try to get the latest off my camera and up online tonight. ;-)

Tragedy and Tears

It's been a fairly sad week since I've been back from the States. It seems that all anyone has been doing is going to wakes and funerals. A funeral in Ireland is an event in itself, so to be swamped with more than one in a week can be a lot to handle. One woman I know had to attend 5 this week. I don't know if it's the dreary weather or the cold or what - but I hardly remember more than one or two funerals happening all summer long.

Most of the funerals have been members of an older generation, most of whom had been sick for a long while and passed on peacefully, surrounded by loved ones who had a chance to say goodbye. Although these funerals are still sad and the people are sorely missed, they seem to offer a chance for people to remember and celebrate the lives of the deceased.

There was one funeral this week that marked the unexpected death of a young member of the community who was only 24 years old. He owned his own plumbing business, had a caring family, and an established relationship with a young local girl. He had been missing for about 5 days before a woman from a local rural area found his van while out walking one afternoon. She reported it to the local Guardai (police) and they discovered that the young man was inside, having rigged his exhaust to commit suicide by carbon monoxide poisoning. The community was shocked. Nobody had seen it coming and hardly anyone could understand it. I had never met the chap so I didn't attend the funeral but it was a large one, full of grieving friends and family members trying to make some sense of the situation.

It's a shame to hear so many similar stories in the news and throught he community each week. Ireland has the fifth highest rate of suicide in the 15-24 year old age group and it has quickly become the leading cause of death in that age group. It's become so alarming that the government has been quick to develop Suicide Prevention plans and task forces. They want to make people aware that there are ways to deal with depression and that there is help out there.

I know that there are a good number of suicides in the States each year but I don't remember hearing about them nearly as much as I do over here. I don't know if that's because I have been fortunate enough to not have suicide touch my life directly or if it's because the communities are so much closer over here. It provides for a nasty rumor mill at times, but it also provides a lot of support for family and friends when they go through a crisis like being affected by suicide.

I know this has been a bit of a downer of a post, but it's been a pretty widely discussed topic this week, both on the news and in the local community. It's not something you'd probably hear about at home, so I thought I'd share a bit of the darker side of Ireland.

I'll try to think of something super cheerful to post about tomorrow. Promise! ;-)

Block vs. Timber

Last night was my first night back at training in a few weeks. It wasn't nearly as painful as I was expecting, but I could tell it had been a while since I had worked out. I finally broke the crazy jetlag pattern and was asleep at 10:30pm and slept all the way through the night. It felt fantastic. What didn't feel fantastic was waking up to a freezing cold house. The heating system doesn't have a thermostat, but it does have an auto clock timer. I had it set to turn on about an hour before I had to get up but for some reason the clock was running slow and it never did. There's nothing like getting out of a nice warm bed and putting your tootsies on a cold laminate floor. I have SERIOUSLY got to find a carpet for that room - even slippers don't completely kill the cold.

I was watching a program last night on timber frame construction. That's what they call building houses out of wood over here. It's a new idea, so far as I can tell. The tradional method for residential construction is to use cinder blocks (remember those things you used to prop your bed up on in college?) to build cavity wall style houses. It's kind of hard to explain without drawing a sketch but it's basically a whole house made out of concrete and cinder blocks. The exterior and interior walls are block and the floor is concrete.

I have multiple issues with this method of construction. First of all - it's a pain in the ass to hang anything on the wall. You can get special little hangers that pin into the plaster and block, but you can't take them off without a three inch hole of plaster coming with it. Not quite fixable with the old tube of toothpaste. Anybody who knows me knows how much I love photos and I have a whole pile of them sitting in frames in the living room because the landlord doesn't want too many holes in the wall.

I'm also not a big fan of the crazy cold floors. There's just something about concrete floors, even with laminate flooring, that is just cold and hard. I just don't like it. The block houses are also harder to heat and remodeling is a big no-no. It's way too much work. You can't just move walls around and throw in windows like you would in a timber frame house. There's cutting block, and placing lintels, and patching block, and replastering. Way too much work for most people.

The big argument from anti-timber people seems to be that they won't hold up in the weather or they won't last as long. I don't know about that. There's some pretty nasty weather in the northeast and there are plenty of old farmhouses that are hundreds of years old where I grew up. With the quality of today's building materials and treated woods, I can't see where that argument would hold up. Besides - who really wants a house that will last forever? You're eventually going to want to demo it and building in block would just make it ten times harder!

Yes, I know I'm a construction geek in today's post. I can't help it though. I miss the coziness of houses built out of wood. They remind me of home. There's actually a family somewhere in Ireland who imported a log home from the U.S. They went online, found a plan they liked, contacted the company and had the whole thing shipped over. They even sent a representative to supervise the construction. I thought that was a pretty cool story. I read about it in one of my construction magazines.

And to think I didn't have anything to write about when I started typing. I suppose construction is an easy enough topic for me though. Speaking of - lunch is over and I've got work to do before I have to leave for training. I hope it tires me out as much as last night so I get another good night of sleep!! ;-)

48 Days Until Christmas

No, I'm not being a crazy Christmas fanatic. It's a countdown they do every day on the morning show I listen to. It feels like they were announcing 100 days until Christmas just the other day... Anyhow - it's a little different over here for the start of the Christmas season because they don't have the definitive cut-off point of Thanksgiving as the start-up for the decorating and lights and music. If you walk into certain department stores now, not only are they all decorated but they've got songs like 'Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas' and 'Jingle Bell Rock' playing!

Come on, people! I haven't even had my Halloween party yet! I know I'm a little late, but my recent vacation to the States caused me to miss both weekends right around Halloween and it's got to be pushed out to this weekend. I am NOT missing a year of dressing up even if people in Ireland don't get as excited as I do about it.

Halloween isn't as big a deal here as it is in the U.S. People aren't big into theme parties and dressing up, in general. I feel like I went to at least 3 theme parties a year when I was home, whether they were Halloween, 70's, pimps & ho's, etc... You'd think people would enjoy the break from pint after pint at the local pub. House parties in general just aren't as popular here. I think it may be because the houses aren't as spacious as they are at home, so it's much easier to just book a place for a party. The size of most families around here would let you fill a party hall or event room with no problem...

I'm going to brave having everyone over to our place on Saturday. I've got decorations and I've been working on the food list. If anyone has any good Halloween recipes feel free to share them. I've also got most of a costume. I'm wearing my nurse's uniform but I can't find my white pumps anywhere! We even ripped apart all of my storage boxes at home. I tried in vain to find a pair in the stores at home (way out of season by now) but I'm hoping I'll have a little more luck here, if I can get to a store before they all shut in the evenings. I've seen women wearing Ugg boots in August, so I'm guessing there isn't a 'off-season' in Ireland.

Another funny note on the food for the party - I make a lot of dips and dishes with sour cream for parties (onion dip and chips, veggie dip for the veggie platter, spinach dip with bread). Most stores in Ireland stock shelves early in the week and sour cream just isn't a very popular food so what they stock is what you get for the week. I know this because I've tried to find sour cream on Fridays before. Anyhow, I saw they had 6 things of it left and so I bought them to use this weekend. It's SO rare for people to use it that the girl at the checkout actually asked me what I use it for because she'd heard of it but never knew anyone to buy it. She thought it very strange to suggest putting it on baked potatoes or tacos. Another 'weird' thing I eat as an American. I'm just glad they sell it over here. My beef stroganoff just wouldn't be the same without it!

So if you have any ideas on fun foods for Halloween feel free to send them my way. Until next time... ;-)

Back Again

There's really nothing like the first day back at work after a vacation to make you wish you could win the lottery! I'm beat. I've been hit by jet lag both ways. It's SO much easier traveling west to east. I don't think I've ever really been jet lagged going in the other direction. My body misses that!

My trip home was great. My mom and dad both took Tuesday and Thursday off and were around when I left on Friday, so I was able to spend loads of time with them. My credit card company is loving me for all of the shopping I did while I was home, but looking back - most of it really was stuff I needed (new running shoes, new soccer cleats, new waterproof winter boots) that were so much cheaper at home. I put off getting any of that stuff until I got home so it just LOOKED like I spent a lot more because it was all in one little time span (at least that's what I keep telling myself!) A few of the 'wants' as opposed to 'needs' were the multiple bottles of Captain Morgan I stocked up on in Duty Free (can't find it in Ireland), a pair of cool suede boots, and a couple of cute tops. At least it's done now. I don't think I'll allow myself to buy anything new until I go home again next time though!

Some highlights of my trip (in no particular order):

- Getting to hang with my sister Shaine. She's got some cool new highlights as a result of my trip home - wish she hadn't had to work as much though.

- Eating lots of yummy chicken wings! I think I had my fill while I was home... I ate them just about every other day if my memory serves me correctly.

- Seeing my friend Andrea from high school. She managed to get a free pass from her husband and kids and came over to help me drink lots of wine on Wed. night. It was tons of fun to catch up and she even had her mom pick her up like when we were in middle school! :-)

- Getting to meet baby Ben and play with Emma! It was so great to spend so much time with Crystal, Jamie, and the kids. I miss them when I'm away...

- Seeing Kelly and getting to have her as my roommate for a few days again. I just wish it hadn't been so busy.

- Hanging out with the Boston crowd and catching up with my cousin Alex again!

- Seeing snow! I took a picture since I wasn't sure I'd even get to see any this year. Everything was covered in snow when I woke up at 5am one morning so I went downstairs and took photos. Good thing because it was almost all melted by the time I woke up for breakfast!

It was eventful and busy and I feel like I need another vacation (known as 'holidays' over here) to recover. For now I'll have to settle for going to get something to eat. My body hates me - it thinks I should be eating supper and all I gave it was a cereal bar (no milk for regular stuff) for breakfast so far today! I promise to be a bit better about blogging now that I'm back! ;-)

Jet Lag and Friendship

Wrote this a few days ago but couldn't get it posted... sorry for the lapse while on vacation....

The jet lag is killing me - not so much at night when it should, but because I wake up WICKED early (you didn't expect me to be home and not use 'wicked', did you?) and nobody is around to hang out with. Well, maybe Crystal since Ben seemingly wakes her up every two hours to eat, but she usually heads back to sleep. Kelly's up that early but she's so busy with the wedding, she's out the door before most people would think it sane to open their eyes!

It's been FANTASTIC seeing all of my friends this weekend. I knew I missed them all but I didn't realize how much until I saw them all again. I've gotten to spend loads of time with my friend Crystal and her family. Her oldest (Emma) is 2 now and she's SO funny. She had me in tears I was laughing so hard. I can't believe how much she's grown up since I left. I hate that I'm missing things like that being over in Ireland, but there's no experience quite like moving to another country for a stint. As a comforting note, she adores the Good Luck Bear (the Carebear with the four leaf clover on his tummy) that I gave her before I left and she seemed to remember me. She's also taking very good care of the little baby boy Cabbage Patch I got her so she can practice being a big sister. Thanks to Crys and Jamie for reminding her I exist every now and again. I can imagine a 2 year old has lots of other important things on their minds, especially one who's become a brand new big sister.

Last night I went to a Hangi, which is a New Zealand traditional BBQ where all of the food is cooked in 'earth ovens' (buried in the ground and cooked all day). The weather was terrible all day (pouring rain and wind) but there were heaters in the tent and everyone seemed to have a great time. It seemed like every time I turned around there was a new person I hadn't seen since I've been back. I'm really looking forward to the wedding tonight. I'm sure it will be a blast!

Anyhow - just thought I'd give a quick update since I'm up and already downloaded all the new music I wanted from I-tunes, updated all of my virus software, and am waiting for the rest of the world to wake up!! ;-)

Traveling Light

Okay - it's really early and I can't sleep and my trip over here was certainly blog-worthy, so here goes...

Wednesday, as I mentioned in my blog, was a bit of a washout. Training ended up getting cancelled and everything flooded out. One of the roundabouts I went by had a guy directing traffic in waist-deep water at one of the exits. I managed to make it home in one piece and got everything packed and ready to go for yesterday morning.

Everything yesterday morning seemed to be a little slow going - getting out of the house, getting to the airport parking, getting to the airport from parking... Anyhow, we got to the front of the check-in line about 5 minutes after they closed our flight. Perfect. The flight I was SO looking forward to. Time to go to the ticket counter and sort something out. Turns out there's not flight that will get us to Heathrow in time to make our connection. I'm already willing to give up and go home at this point because I can just tell it's one of those days I just shouldn't have gotten out of bed. So we try to book a later flight and almost have that accomplished when an AerLingus rep finds us and tells us the flight's been delayed and we can board.

She escorts us through the airport (hopping lines at security and everywhere else) rushes us to the gate and gets us on in time. I think they overbooked the flight and didn't want to tell us, because they closed the gate almost an hour ahead of the flight, there were still 6 people missing, and we took the last two seats. Math just didn't add up.

We make it to Heathrow on the correct flight and I'm so excited that I don't care WHY the whole closed gate thing happened as long as I'm on my way home. As we get off the plane and are going through the arrival terminal to switch to our next flight, we notice one of my bags coming off the luggage belt. Well, that's not right, so we wait to see if any others come out, but they don't. Weird. Off to the luggage lady. She says she'll bring the bag down below to be transferred and off we go to terminal 4. If you haven't been to Heathrow, you should know that it's HUGE. You have to take a highspeed train to terminal 4 to catch international flights.

We get to terminal 4, get our boarding passes and get on the plane. Lucky us -we have an entire 4 seats in the middle to ourselves to stretch out and relax. Watched 'The Break Up', with Jennifer Aniston and Vince Vaughn, ate a not-so-bad salmon dinner, and caught up on some sleep. I finally get to Logan, get through customs (where the wise-but-nice guy at the desk picks on me for being from NY until I note that he should let me into the country anyhow because although my passport says NY, I'm still a Sox fan - which seemed to work because he had no further questions), and go to the baggage claim to wait for luggage. I've never seen the luggage come out so fast. It beat everyone through customs and the little blue bin (denoting the end of the line) came out within 10 minutes of me standing there. Umm.. that's all well and good - but if you notice, I'm still standing there, the little blue bin came out and there was no mention of me picking up luggage.

Right - no luggage. All bags are lost. Second trip to the baggage desk. This time I fill out a form and have them promise to deliver to Crystal's. Ugh. I got a good deal on the rental car, did lots of shopping at Wrentham Outlets, and made it back to Kelly's near Worcester. Ahhh.. home sweet home. Even though Kelly's in a new place, everything is still so familiar from when we were roomies (and a GREAT roomie she was!!) that it's a good finish to a long day. AND Crystal called last night to say they were dropping the bags off overnight.

Now it's 7am, I've been up since 5.30am and it's time to get my bum out of bed and get to IHOP!! Keep your fingers crossed the rest of my trip is a little less adventurous! ;-)

Would you still love me if I were bald?

If today keeps going as it has been, I may pull all of my hair out by the time I leave work today. There's nothing quite like the last day of work before you're heading off on vacation to do your head in. It seems that no matter how hard you plan and how organized you are, something always goes amiss at the last minute and I'm working hard to avoid that today! Then why am I blogging instead of hard at work? Because if I plan on saving any of my sanity for my week of vacation I needed to break for 15 minutes, enjoy something to eat for lunch, and take my mind off work for a bit.

It is POURING out here. It's going to make me feel a bit better about missing soccer training tonight. It's not so tough to miss it when you know you'd be soaked and freezing if you were there. I've got to finish packing for my flight tomorrow morning, so I've got a good excuse. It's been a busy week and I made it to Gaelic training last night (which is why I'm not packed yet) so I don't feel so bad. It's looking like some Chinese takeout and suitcases are in my future. Maybe my fortune cookie will read well tonight. :-)

I occasionally jot little things that occur to me as being different from home down on a sticky note to write about. They don't really make up their own blog but they're handy little things to know:

Mobile Phones: They aren't called 'cell phones' over here and you can easily distinguish a mobile number because ALL mobile numbers begin with either 085, 086, or 087. It's a handy little thing they've organized over here.

License Plates: They're registration plates over here and they belong to the car as opposed to the person who owns the car. In other words, if you sell your car the plates go with it. Since they use this system with the plates, they're able to list some info about the car within the digits. A license plate in Ireland has the general formatting of NN-LL-NNNN. N's are numbers and L's are letters. The first 2 numbers denote the year of the car, the letters denote the county the car was first registered in (usually the first and last letters of the county name - but not always), and the last 4 numbers are seemingly random. So a 2006 Honda Civic bought new in County Wicklow might have the plates '06-WW-8375'. If it were registered in Dublin: '06-D-8375' and so on...

Computer keyboards: I have my laptop from the States over here at home and I use a native keyboard for work so I'm constantly having to look and see where certain punctuation keys are. I don't even have a '€' symbol on my U.S. board and the '@' and quotation symbols are in funny places over here.

Those are a few odd bits about all things Irish. I'm going to try to make an entry or two while I'm home, but if not I'll see you in a week or so. Don't forget I'm here in the meantime!!! ;-)

Irish Soaps

Soaps. Not the kind you use in the shower to keep you from getting stinky... the kind you watch on 'the telly' to keep you entertained. The Irish watch a lot of soaps. To make this entry a little easier to follow I'll give you a bit of a background on Irish television, in general.

There are about 4 to 6 main channels that come with a normal cable hook up. These include RTE 1, 2, 3, and 4 and BBC 1 and 2. RTE 4 is funded to provide programming in Irish (the language) although there are only so many Irish programs out there, so you occassionally find some good shows/movies in English. The remainder of the channels provide fairly typical programming with reality TV, gameshows, news, and SOAPS!

As I said before, the Irish watch A LOT of soaps. 'A LOT' registers in two ways: first there are a lot of different soaps that play on the telly over here. Second there are a lot of people who watch those soaps. Soaps in Ireland aren't just for women... Oh, no. Men of all ages are addicts here. It's no wonder - you'd find updates on all of the soaps in every magazine, paper, tabloid printed over here. The funny thing is, the papers usually spoil the week anyhow so you KNOW what's going to happen.

They also tend to play the soaps over and over again here, so you never really have to worry about missing an episode. Take 'Emmerdale', for instance. (Or Coronation Street or Eastenders... there really much the same no matter which you choose to watch.) It plays at 7pm, but if I miss that I can catch it at 6.30am when I get up in the morning, or in the early afternoon if I have a day off, or if I miss the whole week it's okay. They play every episode back to back during the day on Saturday. It's called the 'Emmerdale Omnibus'.

An interesting thing about Irish soaps - none of them are Irish. They're all British or Australian. For all of the flack the Irish give the British, they're awfully in love with their soaps. Another interesting thing about Irish soaps - the actors and actresses are not all stick thin, perfect models who look like they live in a gym when they're not on camera. (See photos.) They even age on TV. I've always been amused to turn on shows like 'The Young and the Restless' at home and find the same actresses who were on it when I was 5 looking EXACTLY the same as they did when I was 5. Honey, I don't care if you were 20 when I was 5 - there's no way you're still looking that young naturally.

The soaps over here aren't particularly great, but they seem to be so easy to get wrapped up in. Perhaps it's because they're on all the time or perhaps it's because there's really nothing else on. Maybe it's just because the weather often lends itself to curling up on the couch in front of the fire with a cup of hot chocolate and staring at the telly on cold, wet, dark winter evenings. Maybe you should come over and see for yourself! ;-)

Absence makes the heart grow fonder...

Ahh... Back to work after another weekend. I've got a nice short week and a trip home to look forward to though! I never really thought I'd be so excited to go home... Shows that absence makes the heart grow fonder, I guess.

As for my adventures over the weekend: I made it to Avoca Handweavers on Saturday. I didn't make it into the weaving area for a tour, but the shop alone is pretty cool. It's got all sorts of handmade things - scarves, throws, hats, gorgeous suits and coats... Not to mention the loads of chocolates and sweets and things. The place was spilling over with Americans! It's funny to watch because Americans really WILL buy anything that comes from Ireland. I have to admit I fell victim to shopping while I was there - but I've gotten quite a bit of my Christmas shopping done already. Yes, I know that sounds ridiculously early, but I want to get stuff home and wrapped next week so I don't have to ship it over.

The living wake didn't really happen as such - just a few of Billy's friends stopped by and had a few drinks with him. He was worn out and in bed by the time we stopped over. It sounded like he had enjoyed the company, which was nice to hear.

In sports news: We lost another soccer match, 2-1. It was terrible though because we were actually winning up until the last 5 or ten minutes and then everything just seemed to fall apart. I'm still proud of the ladies though - especially considering it was only the 2nd game most of them had ever played.

I also decided I should open up a catering business. Not that I really have time for it but I managed to pull off one heck of a party/meal spread the other day. Everything from homemade mac & cheese to scallops wrapped in bacon. I think there were about 10 different dishes and I fed about 15 people. It's fun to cook a lot of dishes that are typical at home because they're more of a novelty item over here and people think they're new and exciting. It's okay by me - saves me the work of having to think up new food ideas!

Lunch is ending - time to get back to it. I've got a lot of work to do if I plan on leaving things organized and running smoothly at the end of the day Wednesday! ;-)

Baaaaaaaa....

I love sheep. Most people close to me know I have a strange collection of sheep things. Sheep stuffed animals, sheep drink coasters, sheep pajamas... I even had a sheep bedside lamp named 'Larry' at one point in time. I'm going split the blame on this odd collection between two people: My mom and my dad.

My dad chose to name me Rachael, which apparently means 'innocent lamb' so he gets the blame for that half of it. My mom gets the blame for thinking it would be cute to start a lamb/sheep collection in honor of my name. I don't really mind because little lambs really are pretty damn cute. It's not like my name means 'nasty ogre' or something. Everytime my mom sees something with a lamb or sheep on it, she buys it for me. I've got a really fun mug to drink my tea out of at home with a lamb on the outside that says 'I miss ewe!' and when I drink my tea I can see the little lambs running around on the inside. Like I said in my last post, I'm easily amused so don't be surprised by that

That being said, I planned a fun little trip for myself to Avoca Handweavers tomorrow! they have loads of lambs and sheep because they use the wool to make the yarn, which they turn into beautiful scarves, sweaters, etc... The stuff is supposed to be on the less affordable side, but very high quality. I can't access the site for some reason to see exactly what goes on there. From what I gather you can take tours and watch them weaving and visit the petting zoo.

I can't imagine that many Irish people would be interested in visiting a petting zoo full of sheep because on any given day you drive by hundreds of sheep and lambs. There seriously must be more sheep than people in this country. The hills are dotted with little white specs that turn into sheep as you get closer. It's great in the springtime because all of the little lambs are out following their moms around. When it's chilly out, the farmers even turn on big heaters for them to crawl under out in the fields!

I'll let you know more about Avoca Handweavers next week but I'm sure it will be a nice little fieldtrip. I drive through Avoca every day - it was just a matter of doing it while the place was open. A bit of trivia for you: Avoca is where they film Ballykissangel if you've ever seen the show on tv.

My other adventure for this weekend is a 'living wake'. An older friend of Baz's has been terminally ill with cancer for quite some time now and he's only been given another week or two to live. His last request? A big party. Baz thought he was crazy to want a party but I have to agree with the man - if I knew I were going to die in a week or two I would be having the biggest party anyone's ever seen. I'd want everyone to come! So asking for a small house party to 'wake himself before he goes' sounds entirely reasonable to me. Let the man die with a smile on his face! I'll also have to let you know how that goes. Hopefully everyone will be able to put on a brave face and have some fun, like we know he's hoping they all will.

I'm off to start my weekend soon. I hope your Friday flies by and you have a great weekend! ;-)

So damn cute!

My friend Crystal just sent me photos of her brand new baby boy, Benjamin. He is adorable, isn't he? I'm in love already and I haven't even met him yet. Another reason to look forward to home next week! One week from now I'll be on a plane headd to Boston!

Don't get me wrong - I love Ireland, but I really miss my family and friends. Plus it will be nice to get some of my Christmas shopping done where things aren't quite so pricey! I'm hoping I might even catch a glimpse of the tail-end of autumn leaves changing color. They only seem to turn brown a little at a time and fall off over here. Everything's pretty much a duller shade of green - not quite so desolate looking as New England in the winter time when there's no snow.

I'm so tired today. I was up watching Riddick last night. Not all of it - just part of it. I know it's not a great movie, but I'm easily entertained (as most of you well know) and I just couldn't help myself. Regardless of the man's acting ability, I could watch Vin Deisel for hours and just stare at the man's muscles... Mmmm... Very nice!

So a couple of funny facts about Ireland. Most places have real milkmen. Like the old days - they come and leave you milk every day so it's nice and fresh on your doorstep when you wake up. I wonder if this leads to people telling their siblings they were the milkman's child, like my mom used to do to her twin brother... Unfortunately for me (since I go through a couple of gallons a week by myself and it won't all fit in the tiny fridge) I live too far out to have one of my own.

This being Ireland, they also have the Potato Man. Yes - there is a man who comes and delivers potatoes to your door on a regular basis. However often you'd like them. Baz's mum was getting ready to leave on holiday for a week last Friday and we were all in to say goodbye when the Potato Man showed up. Everyone asked why she didn't cancel her order for the week. Her answer? 'You can't have a house without potatoes!' Seriously - my dad would LOVE it over here. Meat and potatoes every day of the week and more beer and whiskey than you can 'shake a stick at'. I wonder where that saying comes from. Anyone out there know?

Tomorrow is Friday. I can't wait. This week work has been insane. If something could go wrong, it did. It makes me SO glad the workdays are shorter. Less time to spend worrying about things during the day. Lunchtime's over. Time to get back to it! ;-)

Where have all the accents gone?

I have officially been here too long. The accents are starting to dissappear. I find myself talking to people or listening to the radio and asking myself 'Does this person even have an Irish accent?' because I can't really tell sometimes. I'm even starting to be able to read the accent within an accent. Did you know that just about every town in Ireland has a distinct accent? I haven't gotten so good that I can identify towns, but I've gotten better at identifying regions.

There's something about the way a person talks that lets you know if they're from a different region. After meeting enough people from enough different places, you start to pick up the differences. One of the first areas you'll notice a difference in is Dublin. The Dublin accent is pretty easy to pick out and it's easy enough to find examples of because it's over-exagerated in every skit featuring criminals, thugs, or mischeif makers. To the point where Dublin people actually complain about damage to their reputations because of it. Everyone else just laughs.

One of the funny things you'll notice about the way Irish people speak is that their 'th' becomes a 'd'. It has something to do with 'th' not being a sound in the Irish (Gaelic) language. So a popular phrase 'no bother' becomes 'no bodder', 'tree' becomes a number after two, and 'duh' (as in 'the') becomes more popular than it was in 'Clueless'. It's good fun to pick on friends every once in a while ('Tree' tea bags? I didn't know they made tea out of trees...).

They've also got some fun phrases and popular sayings over here. I'll make a mini list of the most popular or useful:

Craic - (pronounced 'crack') - good fun, good times, good laughs, good company - pretty much anything good. An example would be if a friend called you up at a party and asked 'How's the craic?' to find out if it's worth coming.

Lads - It doesn't actually get used like 'little boy' over here. More like 'guys' in the U.S. So when we're at training and need to set up a drill somebody might address all of the girls 'Come on, lads! Grab a ball!' and they wouldn't be calling us men.

Yer one - Kind of a nice way of saying 'what's his/her face'. When you're talking to fast to remember or just don't know somebody's name you can use it as in 'I was takling to yer one down at the shop and he said...'

Himself/herself - Instead of actually referring top a husband or wife by name 'Where's Herself this evening?' or 'I left the kids with Himself.'

Cop on - Kind of like 'catch on' or 'get with it'. 'Why don't you cop on to yourself?' would be kind of telling you to stop be stupid and get with the times.

No bodder - Really 'no bother' and used if something is no big deal. If you asked someone to do you a favor they might say 'No bodder. I'll pick the milk up on my way'.

Arse - Ass. Yep - pretty much the same use as at home.

Gobshite - One of my favorites. If somebody does something silly or stupid you might call them this.

Cuppa - As in 'cuppa tea' except somebody would ask you 'Would you like a cuppa?' without actually specifying tea. Could turn out to be coffee in some cases, but mostly tea.

Babby - Like baby. They call them babbies though.

Shite - Take off the 'e'. Same meaning but not as offensive. Like in Gobshite.

Fek - Like the other 'f-word' but not as offensive. It's okay to use 'fek' on TV and on the radio and in front of parents here.

So that's my mini-list of fun Irish words and sayings. By no means is that even remotely close to being complete. If you keep reading my blog I'll throw them in now and again so you'll be a pro when you finally get over here to visit. ;-)