Me and the Fam

Science Project

My mom and I saw some videos on You Tube of people popping corn with cell phones. They had four phones positioned around some popcorn kernels, and when all of the phones rang, the kernels popped!

We decided to try it for ourselves to see if it really worked. The bad news is, it didn't work. The good news is, our brains are not soon to be fried by cell phone radiation.

Sadie the Great

The Sunshine State

Home Again

These days, I'm not sure where home is! I visited Jacksonville and got to see loved ones and had a great time. I ate at my favorite restaurants and got my food fix of things I can't get here in Dublin. I got to see my dog, although she made it clear she'd adjusted to life in her new house with her grandparents. I saw family and a few friends, bought some new clothes and A LOT of new shoes.

Here's a shout-out to my buddies who ate lunch with me at Crazy Sushi, who made a special request to get in the blog - HOLLA! This is a photo of a photo, so forgive the quality.

Today I arrived after a bumpy flight with little sleep to the rainy summer in Dublin, which is not much different from what I experienced in Jacksonville!

Back from Florida

Aaahhh... back to the Dublin rain! Got back this morning from my visit home. I'll be catching the blog up a little later. Need sleep. Sooooo tired...

Bats in the cave?

If you don't have a tissue, here's how you check:



Works every time.

In my neighborhood...

Retail, restaurant or strip club on the way?

Chilling

Wow - the weekend has been a wild one. I'm resting up today and, of course, doing laundry. Friday night I saw Ministry in concert. It was a great show and the finale was 'What a Wonderful World' if you can imagine that. I met up with friends again last night at a place called the Foggy Dew. Nice pub, good music, great times. I hope the next couple of days passes quickly. I'm ready for my trip to Jax! A break from the wild world of work is quite welcome.

Weekend in the Country

This weekend was dog-sitting in the country. It was a very relaxing weekend, and still fun. I rode the bus and the train to meet my Australian friend in Dun Laoghaire (pronounced LEERY) to see Mamma Mia and do a little shopping. We rode back down to the house and watched Crocodile Dundee. It was fun watching one of the only 'pieces' of Australia I've ever seen with an Australian! This morning we got up and had some breakfast and did some baking - banana bread, which was delicious, took the dog for a walk, then sat outside with our books listening to music for a couple of hours.
I also booked my trip to Vienna, which won the vote for September's trip. Vienna - 5, Stockholm - 4 and Prague - 3. Thanks to all of you who helped me decide. If I have a bad time there, I'll know who to blame!

You Get to Choose!

I have two days left for holidays, and I am having trouble picking a destination for a mid-September trip. Please help me choose between the following:

Prague, Czech Republic
Oslo, Norway
Stockholm, Sweden
Munich, Germany
Vienna, Austria

The city with the most votes on Thursday this week will be my choice. I look forward to your vote!

An American Holiday in Ireland

I arrived to work on Friday, July 4th and proceeded to the cafeteria as usual to get my porridge and coffee. When I walked in, I was shocked to see the walls covered with red, white and blue paper decorations. After I paid for my porridge, I got in the line for coffee behind a woman who works on my floor. I don’t really know her, but the cafeteria manager approached her and asked if she thought the decorations were too much. She said no. The manager said at least she hadn’t put eagles up. And this woman from my floor says ‘It should be vultures, anyway.’ Nice, lady. REAL nice. I guess not all of them hate American things, as many in the building enjoyed hot dogs for lunch that day, offered as part of an American menu special.

After work, a few of us went to Sinnott’s, a pub near St. Stephen’s Green for a couple of beers. The new technologist from Jacksonville who has joined the Dublin team and his wife joined us at the bar, then we decided to make our way toward something for dinner. We stumbled upon an area I’ve never seen before, and found a pub called the Hairy Lemon. We ordered dinner and said our fairly early goodbyes. As SOON as I walked into my door, the rain started. This, after a long sunny day for a change.

I woke up Saturday to rain pounding on my skylight. About mid-morning, I got on the LUAS, for the first time catching it just in time to get my ticket and get on, and rode down to the end to meet a friend who took me to Northern Ireland for lunch and shopping. The groceries up there probably cost a good 40-50% less than they do in Dublin. I bought lots of stuff, several pounds of chicken and pork chops and prawns (shrimp) and it was all very cheap. I also found a really nice basket to replace the cardboard dinner set box I’ve been using to hold computer accessories on a shelf since I moved in here. It was a productive trip and a nice drive in the sunshine.

I got back just in time to get ready for a birthday outing. Luckily, my friends called to offer to pick me up in a taxi on the way to the bar, because the rain had started up again and I was dreading walking in it. We rode together, and had the chattiest taxi driver in all of Dublin, who turned out to be one of the free bus drivers from the Merrill Lynch buses. The place we went, called the Village, was very cool – great atmosphere and we got a perfect spot to sit before the place got too busy. Soon enough, it was packed with people, and the DJ was playing really great music and we were all singing along to songs like Roxanne, Sweet Child o’ Mine, and Whole Lotta Love. It was a great time.

Today I’ve been relaxing at home trying to catch up on laundry, which continues to be the first item on my to-do lists!

Rainy Days

So it's rained every day for maybe over a week. Everyone around me is complaining about it non-stop. They talk about depression due to a lack of sunshine. Well, I'm over here laughing it up folks - laughing it up! I am just so thankful it's not hot! I'm happy to live with the rain as opposed to the sweltering heat around the rest of the world right now. The daily commute is a little bit of a pain, but I'm dealing with it. Loving Ireland, still, during what everyone here says is the worst part of the year! It rains in Florida, too, right?

Wonderful Weekend in Ireland!

What a week! I had my first visitor in town for a few days. Julie arrived as I finished work last Wednesday. We had fish and chips for dinner and poor, tired Julie managed to keep from falling asleep as we ate. I had to work on Thursday, so she was on her own to explore the city centre a little bit. I called her at 2 and she was having a nice pub lunch. I was jealous. We met at my place after I left work and headed to the Leeson Lounge to meet up with our ‘Quiz Night’ team. We had a blast at the quiz, even though we didn’t come close to winning. At 11 or so, the quiz ended and we went home to get a good night’s sleep before our tour of Dublin on Friday.

Up to Steven’s Green on the LUAS, we rounded the corner of the park on foot and caught the Hop On Hop Off city tour bus as the rain fell. We decided to tour Kilmainham Gaol (jail) first, and we both enjoyed the tour very much. Back on the bus, next we were off to the Jameson Distillery. We had paninis at a little café across from the distillery and then wandered around the gift shop while we waited for the tour to start. The tour, again, was very informative, and we even got to taste the whiskey at the end. Finally, although we’d hoped to squeeze a few more tours in, we finished our day with a walk to Guinness for the self-guided tour through the Storehouse. And of course, we enjoyed a nice pint from the Gravity Bar at the top of the 8-story building as we admired the great views of the city.

We had a lovely bangers and mash dinner at the Quays restaurant, then met up with some friends in Temple Bar. We had a great evening of people watching, live music and good craic. Our pub tour landed us in several interesting places, including the Clarence, which is the hotel owned by Bono and the Edge from U2, a Russian bar called Pravda just on the north side of the river Liffey by the Ha’Penny Bridge and the Porterhouse, a 4-story pub which had a lively blues guitarist and singer performing. After getting some great video footage of some goof ball dancing to the music, we got in a taxi and headed home. On the way there, we encountered a road block where the Garda (cops) were stopping cars to make sure everyone was buckled in. It was scary, because the taxi driver was saying “hurry up and put your seat belts on!” so we struggled to find our seat belts and get them locked before it was our turn. We barely made it in time for the flashlights to find our buckled belts.

The next morning, we picked up our rental car and headed off to the west coast, making MANY stops in the Burren to take pictures of beautiful lakes, ruined castles and abbeys. We got a little lost a few times, but found our way with the help of the Burren Centre, where a nice lady told us exactly how to get to all the places we had missed so far, including the megalithic tombs and the Aillwee Cave. Our final stop was the Cliffs of Moher, which amazed us and nearly froze us to death. We left the Cliffs and made our way toward Galway, nearly running out of gas on the way. We stopped at I think three closed gas stations and even tried unsuccessfully to steal some at one very panicked moment. We pulled in to a very strange pub with Ireland’s strangest clientele and found out the nearest gas station was almost in Galway, and crossed our fingers we would make it. Much to our relief, we found the station and finally filled up the tank.

We found our way to the hotel in Galway at about ten, and went off in search of dinner. We found a Papa John’s pizza and brought it back to the hotel to eat it. Not very Irish, but desperate times call for desperate measures.

The next morning, we had our breakfast at the hotel, then tried to find the sights in Galway. We had no luck with the search and got on the road to Clifden in Connemara, where we would take a beautiful drive on the ‘Sky Road.’ The driving was quite precarious but the views were worth it. We even saw several sheep walking on the road, which both of us found extremely funny. We ended our tour of the Connemara region at the Kylemore Abbey, which is sitting at the bottom of a beautiful hill on a lake. It was gorgeous – fairy tale stuff. Just a bit up the hill, we saw a Gothic church that looked like a small cathedral. We got some sandwiches and started back toward Dublin. We had a long ride home, which seemed even longer since we were both exhausted from all we’d seen and done over the past few days. Fish and chips (again!) for dinner and then off to bed. I got Julie to the airport on time this morning and got to work on time, myself. What a great long weekend!

Greyfriars Bobby

In Scotland, I learned the story of this little dog, who was obviously a famous figure in Edinburgh history. I love the story and found it very telling of the loyalty a dog has to his owner. Saying a dog is man's best friend is an understatement. Wiki says this about him:

"Greyfriars Bobby (died January 14, 1872) was a Skye Terrier who became known in 19th-century Edinburgh, Scotland after reportedly spending 14 years guarding his owner's grave, until his own death in 1872.

A year after the dog died, the philanthropist Baroness Burdett Coutts had a statue and fountain erected to commemorate him. Several books and films have been based on Bobby's life, including Greyfriars Bobby by Eleanor Atkinson and the films Greyfriars Bobby: The True Story of a Dog and The Adventures of Greyfriars Bobby (2006).

Bobby belonged to John Gray, who worked for the Edinburgh City Police as a night watchman, and the two were inseparable for approximately two years.[1] On 15 February 1858, Gray died of tuberculosis. He was buried in Greyfriars Kirkyard, the graveyard surrounding Greyfriars Kirk in the Old Town of Edinburgh. Bobby, who survived John Gray by 14 years, is said to have spent the rest of his life sitting on his master's grave. A more realistic account has it that he spent a great deal of time at Gray's grave, but that he left regularly for meals at a restaurant beside the graveyard, and may have spent colder winters in nearby houses.

In 1867, when it was pointed out that an ownerless dog should be destroyed, the Lord Provost of Edinburgh, Sir William Chambers (who was also a director of the Scottish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals), paid for a renewal of Bobby's licence, making him the responsibility of the city council.

Bobby died in 1872 and could not be buried within the cemetery itself, since it was consecrated ground; instead he was buried just inside the gate of Greyfriars Kirkyard, not far from John Gray's grave."

Not So Peaceful Saturday

Did you ever have one of those days? I bet you think I’m going to tell you I had one of those days today. Not so much. I was sitting on the couch with my laptop, and a strange, unpleasant noise began that was like a ring and a beep at the same time. I ran to my security alarm and found that nothing was wrong with it. I ran upstairs, which is where the noise seemed to be emanating from. Nothing seemed to be amiss up there either. I walked out the front door and heard the next door neighbor growling and cursing, which is not unusual – I hear it a lot, along with his blaring music from time to time. So I figured it was his alarm, and walked back inside. Then I thought, since it wasn’t raining for once in the whole day, I’d walk up to the market. So I rounded up my raincoat and started to walk out the door, then had to run back in and turn off the music from my laptop. This whole time, the alarm noise had become worse, and was absolutely deafening. I was just about to turn around and head back to the door when I heard knocking on it. The mysterious next door neighbor, whom, until today I’d only ever heard, was asking me if I knew how to work the alarm. I walked over to his place and noticed that his alarm was different from mine. I asked if he knew the code and he yelled at me “I haven’t used this thing in a year! I have no idea what the code is! I even turned off the power and it’s not making any difference!!” Then he stomped off muttering “I can’t believe this! It doesn’t make any sense!” So I kept pressing buttons because I didn’t know what else to do. He came back over and told me he’d tried to call the number on the alarm pad several times and couldn’t get them to answer. I asked if maybe he could google the company name. “I’ll have to turn the power back on!” I said I was sorry, I didn’t think I could help anymore and slowly backed out of his place, into pouring rain – again. So I went back inside for a while to wait out the monsoon. This poor guy’s alarm was STILL wailing at this point. More growling curses, more slamming coming from the other side of the wall. I knew I’d be just as angry or worse if it was me. I saw the rain slack off and left for the store. When I returned, it was quiet. I witnessed at least half an hour of solid alarm ringing prior to my departure, and was never more relieved walking toward home in silence.

Wild Boar Pizza

Remember I told you I ate a wild boar pizza a few weeks ago? Well, here it is!

Edinburgh is Fantastic!

I have returned from Scotland, and I'm happy to report that my trip was wonderful! It went off without a hitch. The flights were fine, the b&b was the best ever (breakfast was GREAT and the hosts and environment even better), and I loved the city of Edinburgh. Best of all, I received no 'good luck' from any bird during my trip. Scottish birds must be kinder than Italian and Irish birds. I visited museums with art and museums with history, and even The Childhood Museum. I ate haggis, saw huge cathedrals, heard plenty of bagpipes, climbed a few hills for great views of the city, toured castles and a Georgian home. I even went on a ghost tour that took me UNDER the city and into the vaults! On the last day, I went on a tour of the Scottish Highlands, given by a Scot wearing a kilt - very authentic. I am working on getting all the photos captioned and loaded to share. In the meantime, enjoy a fine sample of the best.

Not again....

I had a terrific morning today. I was walking out the front door to head toward the bus stop when I was struck in the upper pants leg with BIRD CRAP!! 33 years I managed to avoid bird poop, and have been hit twice in one month all of a sudden. So I headed back in to correct the situation and decided that cleaning off the pants was a better option than changing outfits at that point. So I whipped the pants off, cleaned them with dish soap and water, then headed back upstairs to use the hair dryer to dry up the spot. I needed to do this because the spot was literally right beneath the crotch area, and I didn't want to appear as if I'd wet my pants. It's worth mentioning here that the placement of the bird poop was a miracle in itself. HOW DID IT GET THERE???? So in the midst of my pants drying efforts, the hair dryer died. Please believe I was cursing at this point. I cut my losses and left the house at a high rate of speed. I was now in serious danger of missing the bus. I power-walked faster than I may have ever walked in my life, and saw another girl that rides my bus run past me (confirming the fact that I was in serious danger of missing the bus). I literally stepped onto the sidewalk as the first folks were getting on the bus.

So I was off to work, feeling soooooo 'lucky' (I'm beginning to doubt the whole bird poop is lucky theory). I arrived and settled in, and found an e-mail in my inbox, pointing out a note I wrote in the highlights for the week, which are distributed to just short of everyone in ML, called "Department Abassador." Seriously??? When I checked my submitted highlights, I found it had been spelled correctly. Somehow during the editing process, the spelling had been changed, therefore making me look like a complete idiot. I am such a stickler for good spelling! Anyway, nothing I can do now. It's out there.

The day got better, despite its rocky start. It's all about laughing when you feel like crying.

Guns and Groceries

So, here's where I did my grocery shopping on Saturday.

http://www.rte.ie/news/2008/0609/rathmines.html

Needless to say, I won't be back. I feel like I'm back in Jacksonville!