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!!!! ;-)

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! ;-)