Listen to Paolo

Having a hard time finding the words this week. But the ongoing soundtrack is always there.

DK Goes to County Clare

I had such a great time in the West yesterday! Megan and I took the train to Galway on Friday evening, which took about 2 1/2 hours. We had dinner in Galway and stayed at a little bed & breakfast near the town center. The next morning, Megan went to spend the day in Galway city, shopping and what not, while I took a bus tour that went through the Burren and the Cliffs of Moher, both of which are in County Clare. The Burren is a big, rocky area that is made mostly of limestone, and the Cliffs of Moher are very tall, dramatic cliffs on the Atlantic. Pictures are up on Picasa Web--mainly a bunch of pictures of rocks and cliffs, but there are some real winners in there.

The bus dropped us off at a farm house in the Burren where we went on a 1 1/2 hour guided hike through the rocks. John, our guide, had recently earned a degree in history and geology, and told us all sorts of interesting things about the Burren and how it has figured into Irish history, as well as how it factors into the lives of Irish farmers today. There are lots of fairy and pixie related stories pertaining to the Burren and the vegetation that grows there. Supposedly, the wildflowers there in spring are amazing--I'll definitely be heading back there in a few months for that.

Next we stopped off for a quick photo op at the Poulnabrone Dolmen, an ancient Stonehenge-ish tomb from 2500 BC. Very cool.



The Cliffs of Moher were amazing. They were a lot like the dramatic cliffs of Northern California and Oregon, but much much bigger--700 feet high! I couldn't get too close to the edge because they've built a wall that keeps visitors about 30 feet back. It gets really windy there, and a number of people have been blown off the edge over the years--for reals! During the spring, puffins roost on the cliffs--another reason to come back in a few months!

On the way back to Galway, we stopped for another photo op at Dunguaire Castle--one of the dozens of castles we saw. OK, not dozens, but enough castles that I lost count at some point. In the summer, this castle hosts medieval banquets. I'm definitely coming back for that.

This trip has opened up a whole new side of Ireland to me. Dublin is great, but it was so nice to get out and see what else Ireland has to offer. It was super easy to take the train, and I was able to get clear across the country in no time at all. I'll be taking the train to various points of Irish interest a lot more often from now on.

Go West

I'm off to Galway this evening with a super awesome lady I met through the AWCD. It will be my first overnight-within-Ireland trip, and I'm pretty excited. The West of Ireland is what many Irish people refer to as the "real" Ireland, where lots of folks steal speak Gaelic and everything is a little bit country (as opposed to Dublin, which is a little bit rock and roll. Ha.).

And my travelling buddy is yet another cool person from St. Louis, which is a list that is getting disproportionately long.

But perhaps most importantly, a thousand heart-felt thank you's to my Minneapolis posse, who Fed Exed me a box of birthday taffy. I'm speechless with gratitude. Plus, my mouth is full of taffy.

Still a quitter

I still haven't smoked since new year's, and I still have all of my fingernails. Amazing! Although a plate full of rice krispy treats fell victim to never ending nosh monster today. But I still have all my fingernails! And I haven't smoked!

This is actually the first really tough day I've had so far with this whole quitting smoking thing. I think it was all of the rich, buttery french food we had at dinner last night. But all in all, this is way easier than the last time I quit smoking--knock on wood.

Incomplete

It's not that I'm sad and lonely per se. I'm definitely in a sad and lonely phase right now, mostly because of the dark cold weather and lack of doggie and kitty friends in my life. Plus, today Max left for a week, so the apartment is a bit empty. Nothing that a good cuddle with Ozzy wouldn't fix. Sigh.

So I decided to do a Google image search for "sad and lonely" just to see what pops up:



Huh.

I'm pretty good at combating general sad and loneliness. Between knitting and various artsy craftsy projects, I can get myself pretty happy. Throw some videos into the mix, plus the fact that I'll be going back to the gym tomorrow since my cold is pretty much gone, and you've got a darn good defense against the blues.

Happy Birthday To Me!

My birthday is so close to New Year's. It's almost like my New Year's resolutions are birthday presents to myself--along with that really nice silver pendant I bought myself at the Kilkenny Design Center.

Some of these gifts are the gifts that keep on giving--like quitting smoking--again (22 days!). Other gifts are the kind that are on-going, forever promises that never quite seem to stick--like getting healthy or loosing weight. Who knows? Maybe 2007 will be the year that I actually learn to like exercise or brown rice.

Today has been awesome. Max went out at the crack of dawn this morning to get me tasty Irish breakfast in bed! I've received phone calls, emails and chat messages from all over the globe, and tonight Max is taking me out to a nice French restaurant and a movie. Perfect! I love going out for dinner and a movie.

But the best part comes in a couple of weeks...

Euro Disney and Paris here we come! Birthday trip 2007!

Excuse my absence

My triumphant return to Dublin has been mildly hampered by a sore throat and head cold (courtesy of the always-generous Max). Ugh. But I'm definitely on the mend, and I have a feeling that the package I got from LDB today will help speed up the healing process: bear pepperoni and venison sausage, the spoils of the Kisor's hunting trip last fall! I'm really excited to try it, albeit in a mildly disturbing way.

Speaking of mildly disturbing: pictures from Walt Disney World on Picasa Web.

And a very happy to birthday today to my brother--have a beer on me!

I heart Walt Disney

Yesterday's conference program ended at 2 pm, so I high-tailed it on over to Disney's Animal Kingdom to ride Expedition Everest. This is my first time at Disney World, and I can say this: it ain't Disneyland. Here are some of my thoughts on the matter:

1. Walt Disney is awesome. Sure, he may not have been to fond of us Jews, but the man had the perpetual imagination of a child. And a throngs of people to do hiss bidding. Lucky for us, his bidding included things like Sleeping Beauty's Castle and the Tiki Room and Epcot.

2. Going to a Disney theme park alone is different from going with a friend or group of friends. I spent a lot of time on my cell phone yesterday (as many of you know) as I wandered around the Africa, Asia and Dino Land USA sections of Animal Kingdom. But there's an upside: the Single Rider line. How else would I have been able to ride Expedition Everest an unprecedented 9 times in a row?

3. Even with a magical coating of shiny, sparkling Disney lacquer, a zoo is still a zoo, and I don't particularly like zoos. Yes, it was cool to see the giraffe and the elephant and the gorilla, and yes I took a barrage of snapshots like everyone else, but I left the area with sort of a frowny grimace on my face. It's hard to watch a bunch of little kids scream and yell and point at the monkeys. It made me feel decidedly frowny.

4. There's always room for cotton candy.

Coming soon: pictures and further musings on Epcot and the Magic Kingdom.

Welcome back to Dublin. Here's your scarf.

I'm back in Dublin, just long enough to do some work, do some laundry and pack for my trip to Orlando on Monday. I've got 2 academic conferences next week at Disneyworld, and I'm very excited for my first time there, even if it is only on after 4 pm special conference passes. Both of these conferences tend to wear me out big time, so I'm going to do my best to drag my bones over to Space Mountain and the new Everest Experience one night.

I've posted some pictures from our trip to Israel on PicasaWeb. Enjoy! I had such a great time in the Golan Heights, and it was so awesome to see friends and family--exactly what the holidays should be. Good friends, good food, the requisite amount of stress, and lots of talk about the wedding.

When we arrived Tuesday night, the taxi line at the airport was way too long, so I decided to rent a car for the instead. It was my first time driving in Ireland, and it was weird as all get out, what with it being the wrong side of the car and wrong side of the road and all. I got us home OK, and a good 2 hours before we would have gotten home with a taxi, too. All's well that ends well.

Crash Course in Israeli Holidays

There hasn't been much time to blog due to all of the fun I've been having. Here are some highlights:

1. Brekhat Ha-Meshushim (Hexagon Pool)



We took a little break in the Golan Heights over Christmas. The Hexagon Pool is on the Jordan River where it meets the Sea of Galilee, and it's this amazing pool of water surrounded by long hexagonal columns of rock and it looks amazing. Any Israeli will tell you about how it's the only place on earth like this. Very special. You like it.

2. The Original Israeli Pancake House. Super Fantastic!

3. Trick! I've been getting plenty of cuddles from my doggie nephew. He winks.



4. The Hevre: in Hebrew, a "hevre" is a group of close friends with names like "Yair" or "Yossi." By definition, they are dependable, funny, and like to drink. Many dinners and poker nights. The fun is non stop!

Holy Matrimony, Batman!

Congratulations on the nuptuals of my good pals Alene and Jim! Now that you are no longer living in sin, your cats can go to school with the other cats without feeling so sinfully ashamed. Mazel tov!

Greetings from the Holy Land

Howdy from Israel, y'all! We're having a terrific time visiting Max's family, eating hummous and generally lazing about. And get this--I've worn my sunglasses for 5 straight days in a row. Can't say that in Dublin.

I promise I'll get some pictures up here soon--Max's mom's roof garden is truly something to behold. Like a little desert oasis, high in the sky.

Next week we'll spend a night at a B&B in the Galilee, and we'll also spend a few days in Jerusalem with some of Max's childhood friends. It's a lovely country, and it's great to have a good chunk of time to spend here. There is much talk of the wedding, especially when it comes to dresses and shoes, and a fair amount discussion involving our plans for the future. This is one place where everyone has an opinion and they consider it their duty to share it with you. Not that I'm complaining--I love it when the conversation is focused on me. Or my dogs and how cute and cuddly they are. On that note, check out LDB's new blog, and scroll down to the last picture in the sidebar. Ultimate cute on all fronts!

Lomo Yes!

Success! The test roll came out just fine.



I couldn't be happier. It's been months since this bugger worked correctly, and while I'm eternally grateful for the few pictures it's taken here and there, I'm thrilled to have a little consistency back with my artsy camera.

That's the unexplained mound in Merrion Square, by the way. If it ever snows here, even just a little bit, I am so sliding down that thing on a garbage bag. It will be a thrilling .75 seconds, and a testament to the lack of snowy hills in my childhood. Even a mound--not a hill, but a mound--makes for good sledding when you're from a place with no snow.

Lomo Maybe

Don't hold your breath, but I think I fixed my LC-A (again). Big thanks to Kristy who encouraged me to fiddle with the advance wheel and the shutter when she was here in November. I finally got around to some serious fiddling, and the first test-roll is at the photo store down the road being developed as I type. Just in time for our trip to Israel this Friday, too. After all, what's a trip to the Holy Land without jaw-droppingly vibrant photos with vignetted corners to show for it? Really.

(If you're not familiar with the LC-A and my continuing Lomo obsession, click here.)

My Car, My Friend

I miss my car. Sigh.

(I would have linked back to that one post about my car, the one where I complain about getting rear-ended constantly, and there's a picture of my license plate cleverly photo-shopped to demonstrate the frequency of the rear-endings, but I'm still dealing with that pesky missing-pictures-on-all-posts-before-April-2006 thing. So it just wouldn't be the same.)

It's not that I miss owning a car, paying for gas, or getting it serviced. I don't even miss driving really, and I certainly don't miss sitting in traffic. I don't miss looking for parking or maneuvering the car into my inhumanely narrow SF driveway.

I miss the freedom that having a car brings. Knowing I can get in the car and just go; if I'm bored, lonely, feeling wanderlustly but not airport wanderlusty, I can drive. Even more, it's that I don't like feeling trapped as I do without a car. I know how far my feet can carry me in any given direction here in Dublin, and that's pretty much the extent of my universe. Taking the bus or the DART helps alleviate the trapped feeling, but it just isn't the same.

I also miss the home-away-from-home part of having a car. The closet on wheels where you can keep many different coats and shoes on hand in case of sudden changes in weather. The mobile office where you can fill out forms and pack up gifts before you go into the post office. Especially when it's raining. Ahem.

In honor of car owners everywhere, especially those of us who are temporarily separated from our beloved automobiles, I give you Belle & Sebastian.

Cranium Insanium

So we had some friends over last night for delicious delicious lasagna and a rousing game of Cranium. My team kicked Max's team's ass. Yeah.

But wait! There's more!

We had purchased the Cranium game in Ireland, see, so the questions were all weird and Irish (and English--to be fair, I think it was actually a UK version of the game). I had to act out things like "bubble and squeak"--muh??--which is apparently some kind of food involving mashed potatoes and coleslaw--I repeat, muh??? The questions were all about premiership football and Irish horse racing and where Mick Jagger went to college. Talk about feeling like a stranger in a strange land. Take something that I'm really good at and feel comfortable with--Cranium, for example--and change it just enough so that I feel like I'm playing Cranium but in some weird Taco Bell-induced dream.

Did I mention that my team won? Kicked ass over Max's loser team. Yeah.

Red-headed Step Blog

It started like this: I was looking at yesterday's blog post (Jim and Pam!!) and I noticed that almost all of the women in my list of warm fuzzy TV couples have red hair. I decided that was interesting and blog worthy, especially considering that I had red hair last year (It was the only time I had other-than-brown hair that required maintenance and upkeep and looked decent. Other than that, it was brief love affairs with green in high school and bleached/orange in college. Both with minimal success.) and I had recently seen a picture of that red hair which made me consider--for half of a split second--doing it again. Perfect for a Tuesday blog when not much is going on (thankfully) in my life, I thought to myself, and I can link to a previous post from last year with pictures of the locks in question. Brilliant! (That's Irish for awesome.)

That's when I discovered "the problem." Apparently, when I switched over to my own website (before I switched over to blogspot), I lost my pictures, or something equally as fishy. I don't know how I didn't notice it before, but I'm going to fix it. Something must be done. My vast and demanding audience deserves a pictorial history to go along with my past blog entries. I know how much time you all spend reading through back posts, searching desperately for some clue into the blinding ultra-coolness of Me. It's OK, everyone does it. It can't be helped. Well rest assured, I'll find the problem ad figure it out. And when I do, the world will once again have access to pictures of my red hair! Muhahahahahaha!

Baby, you and me got a TV kind of love

Surprise! It rained this weekend! To be fair, even if it hadn't rained, we still would have spent the whole weekend indoors catching up on Tivo. It's been a long couple of weeks for both of us, and we sorely needed some downtime. All that Tivo led to the following compilation:

My favorite TV couples of all times, in the sense that they make me feel warm and fuzzy all over




1. Jim and Pam from The Office. Jim and Pam! I know I am hardly alone on this one.



2. Willow and Oz from Buffy. They may be a fleeting favorite, but I just love them right now.



3. The whole cast of How I Met Your Mother (second appearance for Allyson Hannigan on this list). It's not just Lilly and Marshall or just Ted and Robin, and it's definitely not without Barney. It's the whole group that makes me feel warm and fuzzy.



4. Eric and Donna from That 70's Show. I want to be friends with them.



5. Joey and Dawson from Dawson's Creek, but only when they're not actually a couple.



6. CJ and Danny on The West Wing. Smart, sophisticated warm fuzziness.

You may say to yourself, "But wait! Surely a DeGrassi TNG couple made the illusive list. Paige and Spinner? Paige and Alex? Liberty and JT?" Well, as much as I love the Canadian teenaged dramas--and you know I do--I haven't found the warm fuzzy coupleness from the Great White North that I have from American network TV. And DeGrassi provides so much more than just hormones. After all, they go there.

It's official

I've blogged every day this week. Even if it was only a lame two-sentence post like this one. It still counts! Oh wait, that's three sentences. I mean four! Wait! Dang it.

Holy crap I need to go here

Where? Here! Awesome!

I'm so not a museum person, evidenced by the number of times I've been to the Irish Natural History Museum which is--at most--a 3 minute walk from my home: zero. Also evidenced by Max and my infamous trip to Euro Disney while everyone else went to the Louvre.

However, I am a useful things person. Evidenced by my collection of snow globes. Obviously. And the Museum of Useful Things is the kind of museum I can dig! To be fair, I can also dig medical-historical type museums like the one at Walter Reed Army Base (the best part is the comment. read the comment.). And also the 24-Hour Church of Elvis, which is kind of like a museum. A museum of crazy.

And also here. Because, I mean, come on.