Textbook or Novel?

Today I've spent a good portion of my day reading at work. It's a nice change of pace, though I don't know where I'm supposed to bill the hours to. I suppose I'll find someplace to bill them. I had to stop by the main office last night to pick up a book from my boss. He has somehow hand-picked me to become one of his new scheduling gurus. Later this month I'm heading to an advanced course dealing with Microsoft Project. It's a 2-day ordeal up in Dublin (the traffic ought to be fun to battle).

Anyhow - I was expecting the book to be a textbook style thing, but it's really written more like a novel with a storyline. It makes it a bit more interesting because it flows a bit more smoothly and it tells the story and explains the logic from the viewpoints of a few different characters. I suppose there are worse things I could have to do for work!

I'm INSANELY tired today. Like delusionally tired. I've been awake since 3am and I mean WIDE awake - not even that drifting in and out of sleep where you don't get a great night's sleep but at least you get something. I had a bad dream about something (I don't even remember what) and was just straight awake until I got up to come to work. I tried getting a drink, walking around a little, turning off the heat (it's only on for half an hour on timer during the night anyhow) but nothing worked. Guess I'll make up for it and sleep well tonight.

I really want to skip training and go sleep, but I also feel a bit more fit lately and my jeans seem to button a little more easily, which is always a good motivator to keep going. Besides, I'm in charge of texting everyone to make sure they show up so I kind of feel like I should set an example. So off to training it is. Here's to hoping I don't pass out in the middle of the pitch! ;-)

The Weekend

The weekend was a pretty good one. Nothing too exciting, but nice all the same. Friday night I had soccer training on the astroturf at 9pm. It's a weird time for training but the astroturf books up pretty quickly so we take what we can get. It pretty much eats up your whole evening though - so that was it for Friday.

Saturday I got up and went for a run. It was kind of warm and not raining so I wanted to take advantage of it while I had the chance. It's not often I'm home while it's light out and I can run the road without fearing for my life... Then it was off to Dun Laoghaire for lunch and shopping. I met up with Axel, a friend of my cousin Alex (no - that's not dyslexia), for lunch and we walked around a bit until we found a nice little pub with a fire and the games playing on TV and nice seat next to the window. Lunch lasted almost 2 hours and it's always fun to get another American's perspective on life in Ireland. He's over here for a month doing some work and lounging around a bit - living as a local of sorts in Dublin city. Cool guy - I'm glad I got to meet up with him while he's over.

After lunch I was off to the homestore for that wedding gift I've been too pressed for time to buy. I couldn't help it. I had this one perfect bowl in mind and I was SO glad they still had it. That taken care of, I took the time to grab a vanilla latte on the way out. There's a coffee chain called Insomnia that's very Starbucks like. I can say that one thing the Irish don't excel at is making coffee. I can see why they stick to tea. Insomnia pulls it off pretty well though.

Then home for a quiet night of watching movies and drinking wine. Well, I ended up watching the Discovery Channel, really. They were featuring my old company on Construction Kings. then The Deadliest Catch was on and I've become strangely hooked on that as well. Go figure. Maybe it has something to do with being on an island... all the water surrounding me... I don't know.

Sunday I was up early to head to my soccer match. Well, not really early. The match was at 11 and it takes about an hour to get to where we played so I only had to get up at 9.30am. It was late enough that I didn't feel as though I were robbed from sleeping in on the weekend. Our Wexford matches are about the only time living as far south as I do pays off. It puts me about 30 minutes closer than everyone else and I can sleep in.

We lost. We do that a lot. We aren't as bad as that makes us sound though. We're great at getting the ball up the field. Shooting isn't one of our strong points though. It's good fun and we have a few laughs and it's something to keep us all a little more fit. I'm feeling the 90 minutes of running around today though. I feel more like I was in a rugby match than soccer... When did I get so old???

The weekend was capped off with watching 'My Super Ex-Girlfriend'. Not the best movie by any stretch of the imagination but I nearly spit my ice cream out when Uma Therman (the superhero, G-Girl) threw a shark through the window and it chased the ex-boyfriend all over the apartment. I was laughing so hard. Gotta love mindless Sunday evening fun.

Oh!! I almost forgot to tell you about my favorite part of the weekend. As I was watching The Deadliest Catch on Saturday night, a bit before midnight my mobile rang and I looked down to find my old roommate Sion's name on the screen. Very strange. So I answer it and it's Sion. Wasted. Hilarious. He had just gotten off the phone with our other old roommate Shane, who now lives in Australia (the phone bill ought to sober him up, if nothing else). Anyhow, Sion (pronounced Shawn) lives in London and was calling to check in and say 'Rach, I'm so F*&KED!!!!' over and over again, in between begging me to come over and bribing me with 6 Nations rugby tickets. I lost my breath I was laughing so hard. He was always so much fun as a roommate. I'm going to make a serious effort to get over there in the next 2 months. He's got a great St. Patty's day weekend planned. Plus, I met his girlfriend when they were over in the fall and she was good fun as well. The more fun the better, right?

Now back to another Monday at work. Is it Friday yet? ;-)

Sometimes...

Sometimes it's nice to be the only one in my office - it means on days like today, when spreadsheets and paperwork are wrecking my head, I can sign into Launch and sing along with all of the country songs as I type and file. I will admit it. I LOVE COUNTRY MUSIC. It's one of those genres where all of my memories listening to it are good ones. Don't get me wrong - the sappy ones still bring tears to my eyes but usually because they bring back some bittersweet memory of good times had.

Sometimes it's also nice to have a weekend full of NOTHING to look forward to. I did just make a few plans for tomorrow, but certainly nothing high-paced or crazy. I'm planning on heading up towards Dublin to a town called Dun Laoghaire (pronounced Dun Leer-ee) to do a little shopping and meet up with somebody for lunch.

The shopping is for the wedding gift I was supposed to have for the wedding last weekend. It was short notice on the invite though and I wasn't able to get up to the store in Dun Laoghaire to get the serving bowls I wanted. The store is Meadows & Byrne and it's kind of like an Irish Pier 1, but they have this section of handcrafted Irish pottery and I LOVE the funky serving bowls for gifts. Anyone who has a kitchen can use serving bowls (even if it's to dump take-out into so it LOOKS like you cook). These are all individual designs so she's guaranteed not to have the same one and she's got a fun, funky side to her personality that says she'll like them.

The lunch is with one of my cousin's friends. He's over here on an extended vacation in Dublin and we've been writing back and forth by e-mail so I thought it would be fun to meet up while he's over here. He was over to run the Dublin marathon while I was home in October so we might have waved at each other as our planes crossed path, but that was about it. It's always fun to see what people from home think of Ireland and to catch up with an American every now and again.

And that's it. Those are all of my plans for the weekend. I think there's a soccer match on Sunday morning, so that will fill a little bit of time and I'm going to training tonight, so there's another hour filled. Next weekend is going to be a busy one (two dinner dances - one black tie) so I'm going to do my darnedest to catch up on sleep beforehand. I'm off to sing a little more and finish up a bit more paperwork before the end of the day (only and hour left!!) ;-)

Family First

Just to give you an example of how important the core family is to Irish life and culture, let me show you a small part of company policy (national law) regarding maternity leave:

'The leave must commence 2 weeks before the end of the expected week of confinement (due date - this must be medically certified) and the employee may not return back to work any earlier than 4 weeks after the end of the expected week of confinement.'

That's crazy! They MAKE you take 6 weeks off and then the allowance is even more crazy. any guesses on how long you can take off with no fear of penalty? Well, it's only 22 weeks at the moment but that will change to 26 in March. and you get a payment through a special government program, so you don't quite lose out on money either. Madness.

Other than that the policies seem to match up pretty well with companies from home. I read through it once before (when I was hired in August) but they just re-issued it and you have to sign that you accept it and send the signed sheet back to the head office. Much like home.

Wait. I kept reading. After the 6 months, if you're still breastfeeding, you can take an hour of paid leave every day to go home and feed the baby. There's still no paternity leave, but it looks like this company lets you use 'parental leave' for the same purpose. Very cool.

You may be wondering what's with all the talk about babies? I ASSURE you it's not because the thought of having my own has even entered my mind. I'm just boggled because I know professional women who have put off having children or who wish they had more time to spend after their child's birth who would LOVE this policy. It boggles me how much they push family values and children to the forefront over here. Again - very cool.

That's about the extent of it. The other highlight was the 21 days paid leave, although they prefer you don't take more than 2 weeks at a time except for special circumstances. Billy and Dianne (the couple from the wedding) took 3 weeks for their wedding. Most couples take about a month when they get married. Most couple at home I know are lucky to get a day or two beforehand off.

Alrighty - back to work. Just thought I'd ramble about that for a bit... Hope everyone's having a great Thursday and looking forward to Friday!! ;-)

Photos!!

So I finally managed to get my photos off my camera and onto my computer from this past weekend. Here are a few to check out:

This is the happy couple on their way out of the church:

This is the VERY cool castle (Kinnitty) the reception was held at:

This is the entrance to the castle. I liked the knights keeping watch at the top of the stairs:

Above is a pic of the boys looking handsome in their tuxes (Simon, Emmitt, Baz, Anto)

And finally after much eating and drinking - the GIANT beds:

That was the crazy castle with the crazy wedding full of crazy people. It was a great time and the photos hardly do it justice. I've got a link to more photos on my Shutterfly account. Comment if you want the link! ;-)

Music, Knights, and Pulled Muscles

I suppose it's all in a day's work as far as Irish weddings are concerned. Sorry for the lack of posting yesterday but I thought I'd have photos if I waited until today. Unfortunately, I got a bit stuck at work last night so I decided I'd wait until tonight to do photos so you'll have to wait until tomorrow to see them!

The wedding was great fun! Everything was about as perfect as a bride could ever hope it would be. Dianne (the aforementioned bride) looked stunning in a long ivory dress with a long sleeved lace jacket of sorts and her hair pulled back just right. She always wears her hair down so it looked particularly dressy on her. Billy, the groom, wore a long tux jacket with pinstriped pants and even appeared to have comber his hair for the occasion (a long running pub conversation the week before had suggested that he may not). The flowers were just enough without being too much and the bridesmaids looked perfect in their two-piece black gowns. The program at the small catholic church in the village (with it's bright stained glass windows and hardwood panel ceilings) was a rolled scroll on creamy old fashioned parchment.

They had hired two local singer (a young man and woman, though not a couple) to sing during the ceremony and the two of them had voices like angels. He gave the guests goosebumps with his performance of Ave Maria. The bride's sister (also a bridesmaid) sang as well and sounded great. You always have to wonder how bad it's going to be when a relative gets up to sing but she really sounded lovely. The priest was fantastic. He really put the couple at ease and had a great sense of humor throughout the ceremony, bringing the perfect balance of serious commitment and fun to the entire thing. Billy and Dianne are known for being fun so it suited the ceremony well.

After the ceremony everyone headed to the pub across the way for a drink or two while photos were being taken and then the crowd made there way to Kinnitty Castle, just a mile or so down the road. It's breathtaking when you come up to it, and there's no mistaking it's a castle. The entrance way was fantastic with it's deep red carpet leading up the stairs and two suits of armor overlooking the stairwell. The pre-dinner spot was the Dungeon. It's an actual bar downstairs in the castle and the walls are the original stone and everything is kept lit with candlelight. There was mulled wine and campaign (I should have stuck to the mulled wine as the campaign bubbles did not agree well with my stomach later on at dinner) and open bar for anyone who preferred a Guinness or other type of drink.

From the dungeon we were led up through the castle and the courtyard (where they had a bagpiper playing gorgeous Celtic music) and into the medieval banquet hall. They seated all of the cousins and younger guests up on the balcony which meant it was sometimes hard to hear, but the view of everything was great. Dinner was salmon, chicken, or steak. My only complaint was that the steak was SO well done but I should have known better since that is generally the way the Irish cook all of their meat. People look at me like I have three heads when I order my steak medium rare. The wine flowed freely throughout dinner (although those campaign bubbles deterred me from eating or drinking as much as I liked and I actually had to go for a walk to calm my stomach before desert was served). The speeches seemed to last forever (1 hour and 20 minutes) but included some really funny stories and jokes and even included a slide show, featuring a photo of when the bride was only 13 and the groom was 28. She's 23 now and they've known each other all their lives and really are perfect together but the best man (and groom's brother) couldn't help himself from pointing out the 'yuck' factor that existed back then! It was pretty funny and did get a pretty good laugh out of the crowd since most of them have known them their entire lives and could recall them at those ages.

Anyhow, after dinner the tables at the front of the hall were cleared and the band set up and there was dancing. Lots and lots of dancing. The band played until about 1am. They're a local band called 'The Groove' and they really are quite good. They kept things fun and moving until they packed up and by then the DJ had already set up so the music just kept on going. The bride was barefoot and dancing the night away with everyone in the place and the groom was right by her side joining in the fun. That was also where my pulled muscle came into account. I absolutely adore dancing with my friend Simon and I think I must have pulled it during one of the dips but I didn't really notice until after the song ended and I was walking to the bar for another drink. The fun was well worth the pulled quad though! The DJ was on until about 3am and then we all went back to the Dungeon (the bar there doesn't close which was a key selling point for the groom!). To everyone's surprise and delight there were about 5 or 6 musicians set up in the corner playing traditional Irish music and having a sing-song. The bride and her sister sang to the groom and everyone had a good time singing and dancing along until about 4 or 4.30am when things finally started to settle down and people started to leave. Madness.

So that's the story of my Irish wedding encounter. I was back at the castle the following day to catch up with everyone before heading home and find out what I missed. There was some additional drinking into the morning hours but everyone retired not long after. I was able to take a mini tour of the castle and the rooms were great. They had two double beds put together and they were so big you could sleep 5 people in them and not even touch the person next to you. I know this because five of the lads were still in bed when I went up and they looked totally comfy and spread out! They were 4 poster with velvet canopies and old stone walls. Gorgeous. I would have loved to see the bridal suite but they hadn't come down yet. The halls and staircases and everything were all so awesome. I'm looking forward to seeing the professional wedding photos. I'm sure there are some great ones.

Anyhow - I've already written through my tea break and then again through my lunch break so I had better get back to work. Photos to follow! ;-)

Yesterday....

All my troubles seemed so far away...

Ahhh... the new Beatles Love Album. Great stuff. It's certainly making my day fly by a bit faster at work. Good thing I'm in the office by myself because I don't think I'd be able to help singing along and then the guys would think me simply mad! It's also earned me a few brownie points with an engineer or two on site. I've volunteered to dump it onto one or two mp3 players today.

I've also got the new Yusaf Islam album that came out just before Christmas. That would be the artist formally known as Cat Stevens. It's not bad. It's not my favorite work of his, but I'm a sucker for songs I know by heart and I know almost all of his old stuff inside out.

The other album I got for Christmas is a the Westlife Love Album. Unlike the Beatles Love album, this one actually has all love songs on it. Westlife is an Irish boy band that's pretty popular over here. The album features songs like 'The Rose', 'The Dance' (Garth will ALWAYS do it better), and even 'Total Eclipse of the Heart'. It's fun because it's getting all of those old sing-along songs played on the radio again. I have to say the originals will always hold a stronger place in my heart though. I remember driving around running errands with my mom when I was little, listening to them all on her cheesy easy-listening station.

Just a random bit of music info. I was bopping away and thought it might be of interest if anyone's looking for some new music to check out. ;-)

Dave x2

I just booked tickets to see Dave Matthews Band at the Point Theatre in Dublin in May. This will be the first time in a very long time I've gotten to see him twice in one year. The first show is in February and it's just Dave. The second show is with the full band. I'm looking forward to both.

I'm eating leftover Chinese for lunch today and I like Chinese but it doesn't always make the best leftovers. I take issue with dried out fried rice. It's a shame too because the place I got take-out from last night is REALLY good. I got orange chicken and fried rice and it was made with REAL oranges and the fried rice was lovely. The kind of rice you'd get if you went to a Japanese steakhouse and they cooked it on the grill in front of you. It's a full restaurant as well, so it's better than the single counter take-out places in general.

I seriously sound like a foghorn. To the point where I'd be laughing at myself if blowing my nose wasn't so exhausting. I'm supposed to go to soccer training tonight but it's going to be about 0 degrees (30 F) and sleet and rain and whatever else feels like falling from the sky. Not great for improving one's health. I may have to bail on it again. It's only 2 trainings I've missed so far and the other was last Friday when I was out of work sick. Can't blame me there! I even made my sister and Kellie go and run while they were here.

Has anyone tried Bebo.com at home? It's a lot like myspace, but the crowd seems to be younger. On myspace there are plenty of people my age and older. On bebo.com, not so much. Most are at least a few years younger. My sister and Kel have been on it keeping in touch with their new-found Irish friends and my friend Joan was bugging me to join so I did. It's fun to text around with some of the younger people on the rugby team and send messages back and forth with my sister and Kelly. Wouldn't be much for networking and meeting people though.

Oh - and last night I had the strangest dream. People kept kind of swapping out of it. Like one minute I was driving (a giant logging truck??) down the road with my sister and the next time I turned around it was a favorite ex of mine. Very strange. The funny part was that it only changed to him once I started getting upset because I was lost and didn't know why I was driving a big logging truck. He was trying to make me laugh and giving me things to hold onto which was making it very hard to drive the big ol' truck! One of our first dates I got lost driving back from a wedding and I didn't handle that so well. My next gift from him was one of those little squeezy stress balls to keep in the car for road-rage moments. He always used to laugh at me for that... I still get upset when I'm lost. I wonder where that stress ball ever went... I think it's still in one of my memory boxes. ;-)

Ahhhh....

It's the first day in about a week that I can sit at my desk without constantly holding a tissue under my nose. It's also the first day I can sit without using my hand as a prop to hold my head up and the lack of illness is a welcome change.

I was out sick on Friday and got loads of sleep and was feeling quite a bit better on Saturday. I have that wedding this Friday and I needed to go get a dress so I made Baz drive up to Dublin on Saturday afternoon so I could go to House of Fraser (kind of like an Irish/British Macy's). I slept all the way there and back (still a bit drained from my cold) but I did find a really pretty dress for the wedding. I found the same dress for sale on Ebay if you want to get an idea. I love it and was excited to find it was 70% off. Nothing quite like after Christmas sales.

So after I went shopping I met up with a few of the girls for dinner at the Corkscrew. It's a fairly new restaurant/wine bar in Gorey and it was perfect for a girls' night out dinner. I'm SO taking Crystal and Kara there when they come over. It's so comfy and cozy and the food was pretty good. The prices weren't bad either. I know - girls' night out when I've been so sick? Well, I was feeling better and it wasn't like it was a wild and crazy night out. One of the girls is 4 months prego and the other is due next month, so nobody really had more than a glass of wine. It was nice to catch up and hang out though because dinner out with the girls hasn't quite caught on here but Noush (American friend) and I are trying to make it stick.

Sunday was a beautiful day here. I decided to give soccer a go and tried running the rest of my cough out of my lungs. It felt great to get some fresh air and not be soaked with rain. We lost the game but didn't play so badly. I got in 90 minutes of running, which is more exercise than I've had in quite some time. I showered and went over to watch the men's rugby game and my sunglasses were happy to come out of hibernation. I got to catch up with my friend Joan, who had also been kind of sick the week before. I was feeling fine Sunday night, with the exception of being a bit tired after all of the exercise and fresh air.

I don't know if it was because my immune system was already compromised or what, but I woke up yesterday morning not feeling so well at all again. It wasn't the same cold though - I was SO sick to my stomach. I'm already taking Friday off though so I decided to give work a go. I would have though food poisoning but I was so busy Sunday that I kind of forgot to eat, with the exception of a small sandwich out at the club. Anyhow - I went to work and couldn't even manage to keep water down. At lunchtime I decided to give it a go and ate about 5 plain french fries. It was about the safest bet from the canteen. I finally got everything I wanted to done and left about an hour early. I got halfway home before I had to pull over and be sick again. Fun day. I got home and crawled into bed and woke up at 8.30pm feeling a little better. I made myself some Kraft mac and cheese and had a few glasses of water (sweet rehydration!) before heading to bed until morning. I'm feeling MUCH better today though and I'm actually kind of hungry for lunch. The fried aren't looking so appetizing though...

So that was my weekend of fun and games. I'm listening to my new Yusaf Islam CD today. He's the artist formally known as Cat Stevens. My mom got me the CD and book for Christmas and I've been too busy to get to it. I like the CD but I still think his old stuff is better. Then again I'm a bit partial since it WAS the first music I could sing all of the words to into the end of a hairbrush when I was little. I think I'll like this one better once I listen to it a few times and learn a few of the songs. I'm off to get some more work done and see what's good to eat at the canteen. SO hungry! ;-)

Once upon a time...

... there was a wedding in a beautiful castle. Actually, it wasn't once upon a time. It's next Friday and I get to go! My friend Dianne is marrying her fiance Billy at Kinnitty Castle in Co. Offaly a week from today. It's a big black tie event and it should be loads of fun.

It's about a 2.5 hour drive from here and the wedding ceremony is at 1.30pm. I haven't been to an Irish wedding yet, but I've heard plenty about it. Once the ceremony starts, the wedding is on until everyone pretty much passes out at the end of the night. There's the ceremony, then everyone goes to the pub while they wait for the reception. Once the reception gets close, everyone heads there and there's a bit of a welcome reception, followed by dinner and then dancing. Once dancing starts, the people who were invited to the 'Afters' start showing up...

A tradition in Ireland as far as weddings go is to invite a core group of people to dinner and then invite more distant friends and relatives to the 'Afters' so that they can all come and party and celebrate without it costing a fortune to invite everyone to dinner. It makes sense as Irish families are so large and it's hard to pick which cousins you would invite or not invite. Choosing to include all grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins only in a wedding invite could add up to 150 guests very quickly. It really is a fun way to get together with everyone on your special day.

So that's the plan for the wedding. I'm feeling better today after getting a whole lot of sleep last night/today. I've been drinking lots of fluids and eating lots of fruits and veggies trying to beat the cold germs out. I'm hoping to feel better tomorrow for my haircut and dress shopping. I don't have anything over here that's nice enough for a black tie wedding. Off to Dublin I go. I just hope it doesn't drain me. I'm supposed to meet the gals out for a quiet dinner tomorrow evening and I'm really looking forward to it. Don't want to be falling asleep, face-first in my meal!! ;-)

Sniffle, sniffle. Cough, cough.

Yep. Sick. I get sick about once a year but when I do, it's a doozie. It started on Monday was slightly annoying on Tuesday and by Wednesday I didn't have much of a voice left and couldn't stop coughing. I went home a few hours early yesterday because it was pointless trying to do anything over the phone - the people at the other end wouldn't have appreciated me hacking up a lung in their ears. I was too exhausted from coughing to do much else. So I woke up this morning and wasn't feeling great but thought I'd give it a go and head into work. After all, I wasn't really coughing very badly.

The lack of coughing must have had something to do with me being horizontal while I slept because as soon as I was vertical for more than 30 minutes, I was coughing so hard I almost had to pull over. I was already almost to work though so I figured I see if it was jut my lungs clearing out in the morning and hope it would clear up. By 10am I had made a doctors appointment and was leaving around lunch to get there. It was in my lungs, sinuses, ears, and my glands were swollen. Yuck.

I will admit I was a little worried about going to see a new doctor. I don't even like going to a new doctor when I'm at home. I've had to switch doctors a few times as I've moved from state to state but I always put off going to see a doctor for as long as practical when I know I'm going to see a new one. So what if I'm a bit silly?

I ended up waiting forever to get in to see her, but the bonus to that is there are only 2 exam rooms and they are in the doctors' offices so when they DO finally see you, a nurse doesn't stick you in an exam room and make you wait forever while the doctor deals with other patients. Anyhow - turns out it's probably just a bad cold but it's bad enough that she wrote me a prescription for a penicillin based antibiotic in case it gets worse over the weekend. I don't like taking antibiotics unless I have to so I was glad she didn't find anything wrong.

The medical system here is a bit different from home. There's private health insurance, but not many people have it. It's mostly considered a high priced luxury. I don't really spend much time at the doctors office so I haven't bothered getting it. Unless you have a regular problem (allergies, asthma, etc...) it doesn't pay to get the insurance if you go to see a doctor only once or twice a year (which is my average). The visit was only 45 euro, so it didn't hurt the pocket too badly.

Anyhow, I came home and slept all afternoon. I just had a bit of dinner and I think I'm going back to do the same again. I've been pretty much kicked out of work tomorrow (Mick said he'd lock me out of the office if I showed up) so maybe a day of rest and bad daytime talk shows will cure me. I need to get better so I can be in top shape to attend the black tie wedding at a castle next week! More on that tomorrow... I'll need something to do while I'm home sick! ;-)

Boo hoo... sniff sniff....

The girls are gone. They've left me to head back to the States. I dropped them off at the ariport yesterday morning and headed into work a bit late. They almost missed the connection from Newark to Albany but made it just in time. I'm now sitting at work dying of some sort of chest cold. The kind where you can't stop coughing and it hurts to cough so it makes you want to cry. The guy I work with just ran out to grab some stuff at the hardware store and when he came back he plopped cough medicine and cough drops on my desk. Yep - I sound like crap.

The up side of the girls not being here is that I had time to take photos off of my camera and put them on disk last night. Most of the week I was too busy taking them. A few pics of the fun times they had over here:

This is my friend Gavin. The girls loved him. This picture completely describes his personality.

These are the girls on their first night out. They had a REALLY hard time making friends. Can you tell?

They actually went running in those outfits. Yep - gonna miss 'em!

So that's a quick summary of my week with Kelly and Shaine. My sister Shaine is the one in red and Kelly is in the yellow, if you're wondering. I'm trying to talk them into moving over for the summer and getting a job here for a month or two. There's certainly no lack of men waiting to entertain them if they do! Ahh... to be 19 again!

Fun things they noticed on their trip over...

-Ireland has good Chinese food.

-There's nothing quite like an Irish chipper for a late night snack when the bars close. They have the 'best burgers ever' acoording to the girls.

-The roads are really narrow and people drive VERY close to the hedges and trees on the sides of the road (they were a bit scared at times, I think).

-Irish men LOVE cute American girls (don't all guys?).

So there are a few things to look forward to for all of my friends whose arms I'm twisting to come over. They made me look forward to my next set of visitors in April. I'm looking forward to Kara and Crystal maknig the trip!! ;-)

Recap continued...

So I finally got everything cleaned up and groceries bought so my sister and Kelly wouldn't starve. They flew into Dublin airport at 7.30am on Friday and today is the first day since they arrived that they haven't had much to do.

Friday was spent napping, shopping in Gorey, and pigging out on chicken parm. It was my first time making it and even I was impressed with how well it turned out. I'll be adding it to my list of regular favorites for entertaining if anyone wants to stop over for dinner!

Saturday we went to a rugby match where the boys made them do a shot of Powers (Irish Whiskey) and have a glass of Guinness before they were allowed to leave the clubhouse. The rule was that a trip to Ireland was not a trip to Ireland without whiskey and Guinness. They did it. I was impressed. I was also impressed that it didn't make them sick. We headed home and got ready to go out. It was Chinese for dinner (really GOOD Chinese) and then up to Arklow. It took all of 5 seconds at Christie's Bar to have a row of men 3 deep trying to talk to them and buying them drinks. It was fairly entertaining to watch. We headed to Oscars/Rascals for some dancing and a few late night drinks and then home to sleep it all off. I'll have some good pics within the next few days of all that fun.

Sunday was a day of more shopping in Wexford (Shaine needed dress shoes!) and off to Arklow again for New Year's Eve. It was fairly uneventful but we ran into some friends and it turned into a good night. We went to an afterhours party at a friend's house where a bunch of the rugby lads were partying. It was a really good time and they were singing everything from old Irish folk music to rugby songs. It was a bit of a Scottish/American/Irish contingent and we finally snuck out about 4am. I'm not really familiar with that part of town and we ended up on quite a few one way streets that caused us to back track in our very tall heels. I'm not sure my feet are fully recovered yet.

It took us about an hour and a half to make it back to Fernhill, where we were staying. You would have thought somebody (like the police roaming the streets) would have stopped to pick up three freezing girls in dresses and heels... It would have been much appreciated. New Years was spent sleeping in and hanging out. We rented a few movies and video games and watched 'Take the Lead'. Not bad - I'm a sucker for those dance movies though.

Tuesday we went to Dublin, where we shopped ourselves stupid on Grafton Street. The girls got a few of the latest fashion trends (maybe a post for tomorrow). It was dark and we were exhausted by the time we stumbled back to the car. I took them for some proper Irish pub food in Gorey and then we headed home to pass out.

Yesterday they went shopping in Gorey and then I dragged them to soccer training with the rest of the ladies. They both scored in the scrimmage and seemed to have a lot of fun. Shaine called today to say her hips were in severe pain, which made me feel good because I'm not sore at all and I'm an old bag in comparison!

Speaking of bags... Shaine got me a really nice Coach bag and matching wallet for Christmas. It's lovely brown and matches my new coat and all of the brown outfits I've been buying lately. Great gift!

So that's been the week for the gals in Ireland. So far as winter weather goes, it hasn't been too bad. I was expecting worse - but yesterday was really the only rainy day. A few showers otherwise but there's also been some definite sunshine. Let's keep our fingers crossed that it keeps up for the weekend! ;-)

I'm Baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. I'm back to blogging on a regular basis. It's tough to get to at home because dial-up sucks for doing things like that and I don't have the patience to deal with it. Anyhow- today is my first day back to work after the holidays and I'm missing vacation already.

I was spoiled this year. I haven't worked since the 22nd of December! It flew by though. The Irish celebrate Christmas with a LOT of drinking so I feel like I was hardly at my house at all.

I met up with the ladies from my team on Friday, the 22nd for drinks and a bit of fun. They were falling over drunk, but a lot of fun at the same time. We worked on trying to harass our trainer/coach to come back next year and I think we had a pretty successful go of it. I retired at a reasonable hour since I wanted to get some stuff done over the weekend before Christmas.

I had people over on Saturday with loads of snacks and drinks and Christmas spirit. It was a nice way for everyone to wind down after a long week of shopping and getting ready for Christmas. Christmas Eve was spent getting those last minute gifts for people I didn't realize I would have to buy for and then it was back up to Arklow for drinks with friends. There were a good amount of people out at the pubs (which close at about 11pm on Christmas Eve) and then to sleep so Santa could come.

Santa came and went and I went to Christmas DAY mass for the first time ever. I always go on Christmas Eve and now I know why. I hated having to get up and shower and get ready and not be able to open presents or anything until after I got back. The service was pretty much the same as at home. Then it was off to do some visiting and Christmas dinner. Christmas dinner here consists of turkey, ham, brussel sprouts, about 10 types of potatoes and whatever other salads people feel like adding. I was STUFFED by the time I was done eating. Very yummy.

Christmas night was more visiting with musical performances and sing-alongs. It was good fun and I was happy to relax, drink some wine, and watch some tv. I missed being at home with my family though. It still doesn't quite feel like Christmas happened since it wasn't the same as every other year.

St. Steven's Day (the 26th) is a BIG drinking day in Ireland. There are big parties and the pubs are packed. We went to a party at the Bay Hotel. They served chicken curry - which was the only thing they serve and which I found kind of strange but I guess it's tradition. There was much drinking and dancing and I ended up at the Resident's Lounge with my friends Doreena, Darragh, Simon, and the newly-met Ross.

A resident's lounge in Ireland is a little pub or back room with a bar that can stay open later than the rest of the pubs, so long as they are serving to residents. We know the owner of the hotel so we were able to sneak in for a 'few more drinks'. That turned into a sing-along and an impromptu strip tease by Darragh. Simon has a great video of it on his phone. Ross is good fun and the first openly gay Irishman I've met. He's SUCH good fun. Not to mention adorable and we got some good play on the whole 'Ross and Rachael' thing.

The rest of the week was spent cleaning and shopping for when my sister arrived with her friend Kelly on Friday morning. I've actually got to check in with them before lunch ends, so I'll have to pick up and finish this post later/tomorrow. Hope you all had a really happy start to 2007! ;-)

Happy New Year!!

Happy New Year!!! This is going to be a quick post, as I have two 19 year old gals over here to entertain. Just wanted to let everyone know I didn't forget about them and that I'll be summing up my Irish Christmas experience once I get back to work on Wednesday. Should be a quick summary since 'drink' covers most of it. Hope you are all ringing in the new year on a good note. I'll catch you in a couple of days!!!! ;-)