Done!

And it's over! Yay!

Susie's sick, but the doctor gave her some 'cillin or other, and I got another day off, at least.

So that's another NaBloPoMo!

Oops, I did it again...

This is my annual "forgot to write anything until the last minute, so I'm writing that I forgot to write anything" post.

Hey, it counts, right, Eden?

Home, for real

Back home. It's a nice feeling, no matter how much you enjoyed your time away. And especially since I had been home for less than 24 hours before we headed out to Dublin.

We did bring back a couple of unwanted souvenirs, it turns out: Susie and Lily both came back with colds. Lily's got this sort of nagging "eh, eh" cough, and the occasional spike of fever. Susie's got this wracking full-body cough that's both productive and painful.

And we're expecting snow this week. Actually, we're sort of hoping for it, because if it snows tonight, no one has to go out to school in the morning.

On the bright side, Susie and I just put our Beef and Guinness Stew into the crock pot to cook overnight. It's our first attempt, but after having a really good one in Dublin (who'd have figured, eh?) we just had to try. It should be ready for lunch tomorrow. I'll let you know how it turns out.

Still two days off to go. Yay!

Dublin

Woke up this morning a little early, and as we were sort of coming around, there was a great flash outside. A few seconds later, as expected, thunder. Susie went to the window, and said, "Hey, it snowed!" There was about an inch on the ground, which was nice for the kids. Then the thunder and lightning picked up again, and it began to hail. Pea-sized hailstones covered the already-fallen snow. Fortunately by the time we got up and out it had stopped, and turned to a more manageable flurry.

Now we're packing up, and getting ready for the early flight tomorrow. We were thinking we had booked a later flight, but when we checked, it turns out we're on the 8:45 AM flight. So, up at 4:30, but all in all it's been a good trip.

We've had three days on the ground in Dublin, and we've had a really good time. We took a bus tour around the city that showed us lots of sights (and led us to the new Dublin drinking game, "failed revolution"). We saw the National Leprechaun Museum, which was pretty cute. We toured the Guinness Storehouse, and learned how my favorite beer is brewed (and got a couple of samples, and had a great lunch). We saw the latest Harry Potter movie in a decent theatre. We visited the Dublinia exhibition, and the National Wax Museum Plus, which I have to say, while a bit disappointing, I preferred to Madame Tussauds. We got some souvenirs (mostly sweaters from Trinity Sweaters and rugby shirts, and a cool travel mug).

I think we all had a pretty good time. And I still have a couple of days off before I have to go back to work.

But there's snow in the forecast...

Up for a challenge?

I guess the textbook used at this Dublin school is Ulysses; I know I sure wouldn't fancy my chances of a passing grade...

Happy O'Thanksgiving!

Here we are in Dublin, well known for its Thanksgiving ambience. heh.

We wanted to do something different this year, spend the time together, and not worry so much about a massive feast. So this morning, when I reminded the kids that it was Thanksgiving, but we weren't going to have a big turkey dinner, Lily said, "Well, I'll have to do the "Roast Dinner Dance." Which she did.

I demanded an encore so I could film it for posterity, and she obliged. And now, for you all to enjoy, the "Roast Dinner Dance."



(she says she and a friend made this up at school, so she doesn't claim full credit. Give the co-writer credit to Lily's friend Anna.)

Failte...

...or something like that. We're in Dublin. And now, after a minor fiasco with a folding bed for Lily, we're done for the night.

More tomorrow. Maybe. :)

Talk about your close calls

We showed up this morning for our flight home, and I was almost immediately told, "Um, so I think you're gonna need to get a ticket home."

Grr...

They got us home after all, on a different airplane (well, I was on the one I thought I would be on, but everyone else came along too...) and after the usual "hi, thanks for going away, here are all the services you can take advantage of" (I asked the lady if she was going to start giving us loyalty cards, so we could maybe skip every 5th briefing, or get a free coffee, or something) I headed home.

And that's where I am now. Home.

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh.

Packing and clearing

Yippee!! I am headed home in the morning. I should have been asleep a while ago, but I just finished packing up. Fortunately I'll get to sleep on the flight home, so that's nice.

Did the big "Chapel Run" today. 5.09 miles, 1 hour and 3 minutes. It wasn't that bad, either. The steep winding bit I mentioned was just as steep and winding as I had feared, but a judicious bit of walking on the uphill (maybe a total of 1.5 minutes) left me ready to go for the rest. So that was the only walking I did... go me!

So it turns out I don't mind distances so much, so long as there's no pressure for me to "hurry up, keep up with me!" from anyone. So maybe I'll do some more distances.

Yeah. We'll see.

Oh, if you want to see the run, go to Endomondo, which is the website for the software app I have on my HTC Hero phone (Android) to track my runs via GPS. If you know which island I'm on, go there and look for "Chapel Run". Meh, it's probably not that easy to find if you don't know how, but if you want, there it is. Or you could email me and I'll be more specific. Maybe. :) (You can also see the 4-mile "Geep Loop", which I also have done a bunch of times, but didn't log with Endomondo.)

Next time from the UK!

In which more progress is made

Ran 1.5 miles for time today, and I have improved my time by 30 seconds in three weeks. If I keep this up, I will be quite happy with my time when I redo this stoopid test.

Tomorrow Carrie has "The Big Goodbye" run planned... it's a 5-miler, with a steep hill down then back up at the halfway mark. I'm told it's a beautiful run, and we don't do it for time, we do it for "let's do a long run today."

Which is good, because my back, it is achy.

And on the even BRIGHTER side, in 48 hours I should be home. Can I get an "amen"?