Fall Party At School

Games were played, pumpkins were decorated and lips were blackened (picked the wrong day for a white t-shirt). And while all this is going on, no school work is taking place. What more could a kid ask for?

Ireland Continued

While the purpose of our trip was to visit my Aunt, Uncle, Cousin and Granny, we did manage to get in quite a bit of sight seeing. On Monday we went into town (Dublin) and went to Dublin Castle, Christ Church Cathedral and Dublinia.



The Castle is on the site of the original Dublin fortress and where the black pool which gave the city it's name was located.



Dublinia is very cheesy, but does a great job of explaining Dublin's history. You walk through Viking history, life in Medieval times and lots of information about the Black Death. Nice.




Christ Church Cathedral is the resting place of Strongbow (in the picture Alex is showing how he apparently died) as well as home to some beautiful stained-glass windows. Alex was quick to point out the Holy Hand Grenade found in one such window. Perhaps Monty Python is not the best roll model.




Wednesday we visited Kilmainham Gaol during the day and that night saw Ireland beat Cyprus in a World Cup qualifier.




Thursday we visited Trim Castle (location of the majority of the filming of Braveheart) and Newgrange, a very cool stone age passage tomb.

The Boy is Home!!

Alex spent the past 3 days at an outward bound-style camp for a 7th grade class trip to foster unity, teamwork, whatever . . . it drove me nuts not having him home!!! Oh crap crap crap I don't think I can let him go to college. Maybe if I let him play video games instead of doing homework I can sabotage his academic efforts.

Off the Plane and On the Beach (Sunday, October 12)

Our flight from Atlanta was fab! I love it when they have upgraded the interior of a plane with the individual screens in the seatbacks so we can pick and choose films at our leisure. Plus we could pause, fast forward, rewind! How cool is that! Really could have used that kind of luxury on our trip to and from Beijing.

As an employee of the Irish airline Aer Lingus, Uncle Don was able to meet us at baggage claim and walk through customs with us to where Aunt Rita was waiting. It was a beautiful day in Ireland. Really. Blue sky and warm. Really. We walked out to the employee lot where Don had parked (he offered to go get the car and come get us, but after been cooped up like a sardine for 7 hours . . .) and I actually had to use my sunglasses. Almost didn't bring them. It is Ireland, after all.

First order of business when we got to their house was to turn on the electric kettle and have a cup of tea. Mmmm. Second, as our early arrival had thrown off their usual AM routine, was to get Dusty out for his morning romp. We loaded up in the car and headed off to the beach (Malahide), a five minute drive from their house.



We parked on the roadside and walked a bit on a laneway past a new golf course and up to the dunes.







Dusty was happy as a clam, racing along barking at the waves, chasing the tennis ball and fetching sticks. Alex was similarly affected by the sand and surf. He is like a child possessed when he gets around water (oddly the shower doesn't have the same effect) and has to get in it. Before we knew what had happened Alex as in up to his knees. Shoes and bottom half of jeans just soaked! I lambasted him and had him shed the shoes and roll up the jeans (yeah, yeah, barn door) before he went back in. Ah well, vacation.

Ireland

We've only one more day here in Dublin with Rita and Don. Our last minute trip to Ireland has been a whirlwind visit; the fact that I haven't had time to post anything while here should speak volumes!

We'll be home tomorrow (happy and sad) and will hopefully get some things posted on Sunday!

Tag Sale Saturday

Neighborhood sale. Was not planning on participating. Too much stuff to go through and not nearly organized or disciplined enough to get ready. Not that I didn't have advanced warning. There were weeks to prepare. I'm a bit of a procrastinator. And since I hadn't prepared I decided last night that we would not be participating. Like me, Alex is a procrastinator. Unlike me, he decided last night that he had stuff to sell and would be setting up shop in the morning. So we gathered up a few things in between our Friday ritual pizza and a movie, and at around 8 this morning set up our little table and waited for the dough to come rolling in. Although we didn't generate enough to bail out Wall Street (just enough to buy some milkshakes this afternoon) since we were so busy keeping shop, we had no time to shop at our neighbor's. Thus a win-win for the household account.

Love This

I saw this commercial tonight during the Colbert Report and I was so appreciative of technology that allows me to rewind and watch (and smile) over and over! Then I remembered the power of the ever generous YouTube . . . enjoy!